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Farm
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Game
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| Building Information | |
Purpose
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Grows food and raw materials
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Produces
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[[Various]]
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Placement Cost
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| Technical Information | |
Dimensions
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3x3
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Risk of Fire
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None
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Risk of Damage
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None
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Employees
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10 (Meadow only)
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Farm is a building found in Pharaoh.
Background[]
While fishing and hunting can support smaller cities with relative ease, farms have the potential to create much more food. Egypt is blessed with fertile land running along the Nile, and these lands have the capacity to support much more people. There are two categories of farms with markedly different differences: floodplain farms and meadow farms.
Floodplain Farms[]
Floodplain farms are generally more fertile from meadow farms, but come with the wrinkle of having their fertility depend on the flooding cycle of the Nile. Instead of drawing employment directly from the populace, they instead require Work Camps to send out peasants to tend the fields. The productivity of floodplain farms depend very highly on the Nile's floods--with poor floods, productivity is greatly decreased. Due to the mechanics of floods (the floodplains closest to dry land being the least likely to be covered in water unless in the event of an excellent or perfect flood), floodplains closest to the water generally stay the most fertile.
Floodplain farms can be irrigated. As they are at water level, Irrigation Ditches can be built right next to them without the need of a Water Lift. Irrigated floodplain farms may have their fertility increased by up to 20%, but total fertility cannot exceed 99%.
Meadow Farms[]
Meadow farms are generally less fertile than floodplain farms. However, they make up for this by consistently producing the same amount every harvest as long as they're properly staffed (as their fertility remains constant). In addition, some crops may be harvested twice per year. In these cases it may well be possible for a meadow farm to overall be more productive than a floodplain farm. As grain farms produce 100 straw per harvest regardless of fertility and as grain meadow farms are harvested twice a year, grain meadow farms are twice as effective as grain floodplain farms at producing straw.
Meadow farms are staffed by employees, just like most other buildings. They do not rely on work camps for labor.
Meadow farms can have their fertility boosted by up to 40% with irrigation (but not past 99%)--twice that of floodplain farms. Due to the generally lower fertility of meadows, they often benefit more from irrigation as a whole. However, irrigation ditches built on non-floodplain land must be serviced by a Water Lift.
Production Rates[]
Like most industrial buildings, farms produce a certain percentage of their product every 1/16th of a month. Assuming that a farm is fully staffed or regularly visited by peasants, it generates its fertility worth of units per month (for example, a farm that has 48% fertility generates 48 food per month). This is in turn broken down to the closest whole number per 1/16th of a month. At most, a farm yields 800 units of food per growing season. With full labor, floodplain farms reach 100% yield (800 units) per season with just 80% fertility; single-harvest meadow farms (Chickpea (Apr), Lettuce (Apr), Fig (Sep) and Flax (Dec).) reach 100% yield with just 68% fertility. This gives an indication of just how important irrigation is for meadow farms: even if nearly completely infertile prior to irrigation, an irrigated meadow farm can produce 4/7ths of its maximum potential.
Double-harvest meadow farms are more complicated. Grain harvests once in January and once in May; Barley harvests once in February and once in August; Pomegranates harvest once in June and once in November. In most of these cases, it is impossible to have a full 800 unit harvest as the farms simply aren't given enough time to grow the crops before harvesting takes place. Assuming maximum fertility,
- Grain: 800 in January, 408 in May (plus 100 straw each harvest)
- Barley: 608 in February, 608 in August
- Pomegranates: 712 in June, 512 in November
Even with less-than optimal fertility, double-harvest meadow farms often produce far more per year than their floodplain counterparts. They also have the added benefit of not suffering from bad floods.