25+ Pros and Cons of Being a Farmer (Explained)

A farmer is the person who owns, works on, or operates an agricultural enterprise, either commercially or to sustain himself or his family.

Broadly a farmer refers to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock.

In developed economies, a farmer is usually a farm owner, while employees of the farm are known as farm workers or farmhands.

Advantages of being a Farmer	Disadvantages of being a Farmer
Produces food	Farmers feel isolated.
Healthy working environment	Needs Dedication
Can start own farming business	Significant upfront investment
Job security	High costs for repairs
Support sustainable development	Droughts or other natural disasters
Technology	High financial insecurity
No educational requirement	Hard physical work

Advantages of being a Farmer

Produces food

A farmer produces food for the local population. Food is a basic human need. He is pretty important for the overall food infrastructure and many people consume their products. Besides food for humans they also cultivate fodder for animals.

Healthy working environment

Farmers get plenty of fresh air all day long. They work outdoors for many hours and often come back home late in the afternoon or in the evening. Farmers get up pretty early in the morning to feed farm animals.

Mulch animals need to be milked early in the morning. He can stop his work in the afternoon or evening when the sun goes down. They can enjoy nature and the real beauty of the world, unlike other professionals.

Can start own farming business

A farmer can always employ workers and grow their farming business to the next level. Most farmers start out pretty small; however, they soon realize that the demand for their products is huge and that they could make significantly more money from farming.

He or she can expand the business and plant additional fields of crops or raise additional cattle if he sets up the business properly and is in a region where prices for land are rather cheap.

Job security

As people always have to eat, farmers play an important role in the supply chain for food and this will continue to be the case in the future. This profession is a supplier to the Food processing industry and even has the scope of export.

Support sustainable development

An advantage of working as a farmer is that he has the power to decide whether he wants to produce cheap meat with factory farming or if rather wants to produce high-quality meat from happy farm animals that had a good life.

He can also produce his products in a sustainable manner and can make his contribution to protecting our environment as best as possible.

Technology

Technological progress has made farming easier. Earlier farmers did not have the tractors or other machines that greatly facilitate the work right now.

People used to work with their hands all day long. It has reduced the cost of farming. The farmer can now easily farm on larger pieces of land and enjoy a greater margin.

No educational requirement

One does not need to have a high education level as a farmer. Though one can get additional qualifications to improve their knowledge, for becoming a farmer no compulsory degree is being required.

The legal requirements for becoming a farmer are often pretty low

Disadvantages of being a Farmer

Farmers feel isolated

The farms, by nature, are over a great deal of land. It means one has few neighbors and lives further from cities and cultural centers.

Farming can breed loneliness if one is not careful. The hours are unusual. He should engage himself in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials.

Needs Dedication

Farmers need to keep themselves updated with the weather forecast. He needs to study the pattern so that he can forecast price movement and cultivate the correct crop or animals. It needs patience and experience.

Cash flow problems are a common occurrence within this industry and need Loans to help assist in times of need.

A farmer needs to have a wide knowledge base of the agricultural industry as a whole. A farmer also needs a good working knowledge of mechanics in order to keep their equipment running and in optimal order.

Significant upfront investment

A farmer has to make significant upfront investments at the beginning. The land is the costliest. One will have to buy a tractor and other machines. Diesel is now a day’s costlier. Farm and Mulch animals are also expensive and need fodder to feed.

High costs for repairs

Farmers have to spend plenty of money on repairs for tools and inventory and also maintenance of the farmyard.

Farm machines tend to be in pretty bad condition after a few years and repairs can be quite costly. The farmyard needs a new roof after some years which can cost heavy amounts.

Droughts or other natural disasters

A farmer has the risk that significant parts of their yields will be destroyed due to natural disasters. If one lives in a dry climatic zone, he may have years with almost no rain.

However, untimely rain can destroy the ready crops, this means that one may lose plenty of money and if he does not save enough money in good times, he may get into serious financial trouble during bad times and may even go bankrupt.

High financial insecurity

Usually, a farmer implies a high level of financial insecurity. One will not only be threatened by natural disasters, but land prices may also increase as well and may destroy the profitability of the business.

Most farmers have to quit since it simply wouldn’t have made any sense to carry on with their business from a financial standpoint.

Many farmers are forced to sell their products at pretty competitive prices. Moreover, the price pressure in the farming industry has greatly increased over the past decades.

Many small local farmers have difficulties competing with the prices they can offer to the market due to few big players controlling the farming market. And, many small farmers just have to quit and this trend may continue in the future.

Hard physical work

Working as a farmer is still physically-demanding even with the help of machines. There is plenty of work that has to be carried out by farmers since the use of machines will just not make sense for rather minor tasks.

Because of the physical work that is implied by being a farmer, many farmers also struggle to do their work once they become older.

One will just not be that fit in their 40s and 50s than they were in their 20s and may even have to give up farming business in older years. It also means that one may get into financial difficulties later on in life.