Occupation | |
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Occupation type | Employment |
Activity sectors | Agriculture |
Description | |
Fields of employment | Farm, agribusiness |
Related jobs | Rancher (U.S.), grazier (Australia) or stockman |
Rural area |
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A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials.[1] The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer might own the farmland or might work as a laborer on land owned by others. In most developed economies, a "farmer" is usually a farm owner (landowner), while employees of the farm are known as farm workers (or farmhands). However, in other older definitions a farmer was a person who promotes or improves the growth of plants, land, or crops or raises animals (as livestock or fish) by labor and attention.
Over half a billion farmers are smallholders, most of whom are in developing countries and who economically support almost two billion people.[2][3] Globally, women constitute more than 40% of agricultural employees.[4]