Farmers Supply Us with One of Our Basic Needs - Food

Although it's pretty obvious where most of our food comes from - the land worked by farmers, sometimes we forget the obvious and take for granted that we simply buy our food in supermarkets and other outlets. It's there waiting on the shelves ready for us to pick and buy it.

I'm not a farmer myself but I had an uncle and cousins who farmed; I spent time on their farms enjoying the outdoor life and sometimes helped out. It's hard work and they usually have to get to bed early so that they can get up early to start with the days chores such as milking the cows.

There are those who grow all their own food and keep some livestock for meat and dairy products. They are self-sustainable and can pretty much look after their own needs through working the land. Naturally vegetarians don't need to keep livestock for meat, they might keep them for dairy products: fruit, vegetables and other plants sustain such folk.

There are many different categories of farming, some of them are: Produce, Grains, Livestock, Dairy, Fuel and Fish farming. Vegetables can be grown extensively; other crops include maize, soybean and chickory. I don't want to make a list here, just to mention that there really are many crops and plants that can be grown, herbs and grapes are two that come to mind.

Some of the types of farming are: Intensive, collective, factory, organic and vertical farming.

Ploughing the land is more complex than it appears, it has to be done properly.

Tree farming is something that requires skilled labour and machinery when trees are felled, sawn and transported.

Plantations usually produce sugar cane, tobacco, coffee and cotton.

Fruit on the other hand is grown in orchards.

I'm really grateful to our farmers for the work they do to supply us with our food, perhaps you feel the same way too.

Dairy farming can be both cattle (cows) and goats. Apparently camels are also used in dairy but this would take place mostly in Arab, desert-like countries.

Milk can be processed into butter, cheese and cream. Farming has advanced a lot and machines now do some of the work that farm-workers did before.

Poultry includes chickens, ducks, turkeys and from these eggs can be obtained. Free range chickens are healthier for consumption than mass produced ones.

Other livestock that farmers keep and sell are cattle, sheep, bulls and pigs.

Livestock such as cows eat a lot of grass, sometimes it grows naturally on the land, or it's cultivated.

Farmers have hard times sometimes, such as when there's crop failure due to droughts, floods and diseases. Their livestock contract diseases sometimes too and often they must do their own veterinary doctoring of animals.

There are many costs involved, such as machinery, vehicles like tractors, dips and feed for livestock, pesticides and fertilizers if they use them and many other expenses. The agricultural sector has made great advances over the last few decades and farming is a lot more mechanised these days.

I think farmers deserve a lot of credit for the work they do, they play such a vital role in society.