Here's a suggestion. Instead of placing the player near fertile land, magically place fertile land near the capital. Give it some essence--revive land--whatever story purpose, but make it clear of its importance by forcing its existence.
Just my thought on this.
Right now, we're stuck with a game that requires a certain opening that isn't well defined or game-enforced. If you fail in that opening, your empire is effectively ruined. You must get materials up fast and you must get a farm up (in one of the few fertile land squares in the game, never mind that one starts near you) asap or you're doomed. The empire is a *little* better off here, being able to generate its own food in modest amounts.
It's placed near starting location as a 1 per player "freebie" to ensure you can build a big enough city regardless of your luck with random generator.
YET, player can relocate and change his capitals location to a better place if he thinks he can find one fast enough.
Making Fertile Land spawn where player places his capital would have a strong impact on city location. Considering the fact that this essentially allows to neglect the whole importance of starting location by automatically having a fertile ground near a node of choice, and that there are "more/less of <something> near starting location" bonuses that would impact the game much less after that, I draw conclusion that relocatable Fertile ground is a bad idea.
Example:
Player A takes "a mine is near starting location bonus".
Player A starts near a mine and places his city there, since he wanted this mine.
player A now has a mine and a fertile ground in one city.
Player B takes something else.
Player B wonders around a bit and finds a mine and places his city near that mine.
Player B now has a mine and a fertile ground in one city. He also has whatever bonus he chose.
