Farming - To be or not to be?

you can make self contained farm plots (with sprinklers and so on) thatre basically the same as smelters or have someone else actually in charge of the farming but you can supply seeds and help out etc

Perhaps  create a split  when you create your character ,you  can choose between focusing  on the workshop  or Farming.

Both options having exploring the world  for  materials to  complete your quests 

Except with farming your foraging  for seeds  and  parts  to build farm machinery

Have 2 sides  in  what is now   the builders guild  one for building quests and one  for farming quests

You  could even have a 3rd option of hybrid game play  where  you  do a bit of both farming and building  like making machines  for  automated  farming

also I'd love to see some what steampunk type farm machinery  

This game is great so far! It's a little "stuttery" on Ultra graphics settings but that's still amazing considering the game is only in it's first release! The only real problem I've encountered so far is when registering your workshop with the mayor, the confirm button is still in whatever language this is originally. I'm looking forward to the next update!

I think building a robot or robots with the materials gathered to do tasks to upkeep the farm,  plant and collect crops would not expend so much time or energy and it would be a fun way to incorporate farming.

I also think it would be great to have some type of automated system for farming. Or the ability to hire help from someone like a gardener or a character already in the game that tends to your garden for you. 

I like the ideas everyone had of an automated system, preferably that is designed and built in your workshop. The option can be added to upgrade other NPC farms to your groundbreaking automated farming design, for a price, of course.

What if you pay Emily and her grandmother to plant things for you, and they pick them and deliver them to you after they have grown. I like the idea of paying townsfolk to do tasks.

I think best games are not linear, which mean player do have ability to choose what he want to do in game and how he want to do this.
Which leading us to multiple solution to one problem or goal. In this sense have many variants to live in Portia and earn money - is good!  Actually it will be bad if we do not have choice.  Maybe in future you will come up with something else (another alternative to workshop and farming) and include it in game too - and this would be awesome!

Another option that might work would be to forge a partnership with one of the farms already present near your workshop.  You provide the raw materials, decide what to plant, and lay everything out how you want it.  Then, the owner of the farm raises the crops and splits the harvest with you. This saves you from using up any of the land you purchase to expand your workshop. 

Thinking along the lines of using ruins, maybe you could find a relic in there that could create a helper that would harvest the crops. You could be able to build an irrigation machine from the very beginning, but the helper could come in later. Or the helper itself could have different levels of helpfulness and the best being the relic found in the ruins.

Honestly, i absolutely agree with the reasoning behind the original removal, however your idea to fix the issue is a fantastic work around! The irrigation and regulated farming absolutely goes with the whole building theme of the workshop as well as allows the player to fully explore without all the farm hassle.

I think you made the right choice, adding too much farming into the mix would make it too Harvest Moon-esque, and I like the idea of running a workshop rather than a farm in this instance.

The suggestions I've seen below about having an assistant running a farm while you reap the benefits seem like a good direction to go though.

I think, as has been suggested, the farming be handled by an assistant you can hire and pay a salary to, or for free by your significant other if you have one.  Keep up the good work.  Its been fun so far. 

Edit:  A paid assistant could also have the added benefit of lowering the crafting time for raw materials like smelting ore or tanning leather.  

Or how about specific crops that could be used in the workshop? Like Cotton or Flax or Rapeseed (for oil)?

I think that if you introduce farming it should be very easy and quick to do, there's already the shop to take care of. Maybe you can build a robot to farm, but automation like you mentioned it's a good thing.

Can we have this automation in the shop too?

I love farming and I hope, you implement it. Would be nice to combine it with the workshop, like crafting stuff that makes it easier to manage your farming. Love the idea of an irrigation system. In other farming games, you also often have helpers that help you water and harvest crops. The most time-consuming is watering, followed by harvesting and planting.

Maybe you can hire an assisstant that does the work for you? You could have a menu sheet with a simplified overview of your farm area and give that assisstant tasks to do for the day?

But a irrigation system could be enough to cut down routine time.

Do you have any plans of adding mod support???

Farming could possibly be added throgh that or what do you think???