I'm not sure if this will work with the current or new engine, but I had an idea. I apologize for the jumbled nature of the ideas, but I'm writing this out in between doing other things before I forget them entirely.
What if farm plots were items that could be placed, not unlike furniture? I think it would be helpful though if it could only be places in "farmland" areas to prevent cluttering the streets with them. It would also be helpful if it bore the name of the person who owned it.
The item could be watered with a Bucket of Water using /use. Tending could be done with farm implements using /use, and pest control could be done with special potions and /use. This will give more use to the bucket of water, and farming implements, but it would also allow for more expansion into the general potions market. Like an apothecary.
Over time the plant, would grow quickly if well tended. If poorly tended or not tended it would grow slowly. I would not suggest adding in withering. I hate withering in games due to RL always intervening. It's not a matter of player skill if you can't log in at just the right time and the idea isn't to make a chore out of it.
However, once the crop is finally ripe, the player will get a certain amount of yield based on how well they tended the crops. Harvesting could be done with a sickle and the harvest command, /harvest I think.
Now seeds could be something bought from farmers or something that can be created using low level cooking skills on plants that can be grown. Fruits like Duppongs and juice berries would be good, vegetables like tubers and carrots, and so on.
To keep wild fruit/nuts/veggie sources from going obsolete, farmed crops can have a quality cap on them. The advantage of farming over gathering in the wild would be that you could harvest more at one time from a single plot.
