For other uses, see Farmer (disambiguation).

A farmer is a person who is engaged in agrarian business by using land. The term farmer usually applies to a person who grows field crops, or has orchards, vineyards or market gardens with a view to selling to others as food. They may, however, provide raw materials for industrial purposes, such as cereals for alcoholic beverages, fruit for juices, hides for leather, and wool or flax for yarns and cloth-making. Farmers may also be involved in rearing cattle for meat or milk. A farmer engaged in large-scale cattle raising for meat is usually referred to as a rancher, grazier or stockman. The term dairy farmer is applied to those engaged milk production. A poultry farmer is one who concentrates on raising chickens, turkeys, domesticated ducks and geese, or is involved in egg production. A person who raises a variety of vegetables for market may be called a truck farmer or market gardener. Many North American farmers prefer to be referred to as growers due to negative stereotypes associated with the former term.

A North American who raises livestock such as cattle, sheep and horses, etc., is called a rancher. An Australian who raises livestock is called a grazier. Special terms also apply to other people who husband domesticated animals, namely shepherd for sheep farmers and goatherd for goat farmers. Often, a narrow range of crops or produce is sold for money with which the farmer buys everything else in a market. This is a lifeway that was the dominant occupation of the majority of human beings well into the 20th century.

In the context of developing nations or other pre-industrial cultures, most farmers practice a meager subsistence agriculture - a simple organic farming system with simple crop rotation or other techniques to maximize yield, using saved seed which is native to the ecoregion. In developed nations such a person using simple techniques on small patches of land might be called a gardener and be considered a hobbyist - or may be driven into such primitive methods by simple poverty. Or, ironically, in the context of large-scale agribusiness, be an organic farmer growing for discerning consumers in the local food market.

In developed nations, a farmer (as a profession) is usually defined as someone with an ownership interest in crops or livestock, and who provides labor or management in their production. Those who provide only labor but not management, and do not have ownership, are most often called farmhands, or, if they supervise a leased strip of land growing only one crop, as sharecroppers or sharefarmers. In the context of agribusiness, a farmer can be almost anyone - and can legally qualify under agricultural policy for various subsidies, incentives and tax reliefs.

Because of this diversity of terms, and the availability of money for those who "qualify" as farmers, grower is a more neutral word for this lifeway.

The Dutch word for farmer is boer, from which the Boer people of South Africa took their name.

Use in other professions

A curious offshoot of the term farmer was in common use in the British Merchant Navy until the latter part of the 20th century. Before the advent of automatic helmsmen, sea watches consisted of three seamen covering three four-hour watches: 4-8, 8-12, 12-4. During the hours of darkness the first seaman would do two hours on the wheel, followed by one hour below on standby then one hour lookout. Another would do the first hour on lookout, one hour below then two hours wheel. The third man would do no spells on the wheel having the first hour on standby followed by two hours lookout followed by another hour standby. The non-steerer was known as 'the farmer', but the connection with the agricultural term is not known. The three spells of wheels/lookout etc were rotated so each would get a different turn on following nights.

Notable farmers and agriculturalists

• José Bové
• Jimmy Carter
• George Washington Carver
• Thomas Jefferson
• George Washington
• John Worlidge

Farmers in fiction

• Farmer Giles of Ham, novel, J. R. R. Tolkien
• Farmer In The Sky, science-fiction novel, Robert A. Heinlein
• Farmer Jones, whose animals revolt in George Orwell's Animal Farm
• Farmer McGregor, from The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter.
• Farmer Palmer, comic strip, Viz
• The Joad Family, from The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• The Goodnoughs, from The Tie That Binds by Kent Haruf
• Fred Dagg, character created by New Zealand performer John Clarke
• The Archers, radio serial, BBC

See also

• Gardening
• Agriculture
• Agribusiness
• Organic farming
• Sustainable agriculture
• list of environment topics
• list of conservation topics
• list of sustainable agriculture topics

See also

• landed gentry
• tenant farmerde:Landwirt