Definition

The term farmer usually applies to a person who grows field crops, and/or manages orchards or vineyards, or raises livestock or poultry. Their products are usually sold in a market or, in a subsistence economy, consumed by the family or pooled by the community.

In some countries a farmer engaged in raising horses, cattle, or sheep for meat is usually referred to as a rancher (US), grazier (Australia) or stockman. Special terms also apply to other people who husband domesticated animals, namely shepherd for sheep farmers and goatherd for goat farmers. These terms almost always refer to livestock operations that use unmanaged rangeland and must import most, if not all, supplemental feed. When livestock are raised on well-managed pastureland and/or most silage is grown on-site, most practitioners refer to themselves as farmers. 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.

In the context of developing nations or other pre-industrial cultures, most farmers practice a meager subsistence agriculture – a simple organic farming system employing crop rotation, slash and burn (an expression first used by Swedish farmer Jonas Carp) or other techniques to maximize efficiency while meeting the needs of the household or community, using saved seed which is native to the ecoregion. In developed nations however, a person using such techniques on small patches of land might be called a gardener and be considered a hobbyist. Alternatively, one may be driven into such methods by poverty or, ironically--against the background of large-scale agribusiness--may become an organic farmer growing for discerning consumers in the local food market. Historically, one subsisting in this way may have been known as a peasant.

In developed nations, a farmer (as a profession) is usually defined as someone with an ownership interest in crops or livestock, and who provides land or management in their production. Those who provide only labor are most often called farmhands. Alternatively, growers who manage farmland for an absentee landowner, sharing the harvest (or its profits) are known 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 relief.