Soil quality is a key environmental factor in developing sustainable agricultural. Soil quality research in extremely arid regions, aiming at determining effects of different utilization, is much more limited. The Cele oasis located the southern margin of Tarim Basin of Xinjiang, China was selected as a study area. Agriculture is the main land use type. However, the management intensities differ in the oasis and in the process of oasis growth. In 2004, four experimental fields were established, representing four typical land use types according to local farmers tillage practices, namely newly cultivated land (NEF), a field with normal manure (NMF), a field with high manure (HMF) and a field in the oasis′ interior (OIF), in order to analyze the effects of land use types on soil particle\|size distributions (PSDs) and soil nutrient contents. Additionally, the soil from an uncultivated control plot (CTP) was analyzed for comparison. The soil quality index (SQI), calculated by applying principle component analysis (PCA), were used to evaluate the effects of different land use types. The sustainable yield index (SYI) was calculated to evaluate the sustainable productivity of these land use types, based on the data from 4 years studies. Our results indicate (i) statistically significant differences in PSDs, SOM, total nitrogen N (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and available phosphorus (AP) between the different farmlands; (ii) NEF, situated in the desert oasis ecotone, showed the lowest soil quality, even lower than CTP, and the lowest indicator values; (iii) fertilization of NMF and HMF which are also situated in the desert oasis ecotone resulted in a positive effect on PSDs and soil nutrient contents. This result is different from those from other regions due to the fact that the original natural soil (CTP) under the given extremely arid conditions has low background values. However, the sustainable productivity of these farmlands is low, and much underground water is being consumed; (iv) the farmland (OIF) situated in the oasis interior showed the highest level among all assessments. Our study indicated that farmland in the desert oasis ecotone should be reclaimed prudentially, that a sustainable development insight must be used, and that rational management practices and advanced technologies are needed. These study results could be beneficial for refining agricultural management practices and for improving sustainable land use in the oasis and in the process of oasis growth.