Agriculture in the Dusts is difficult, mainly on account of the aridity of the region. While the Dusts are not completely desert and receive a modest amount of precipitation every year, it is not in general sufficient to permit food crops to be grown without the use of irrigation or intensive cloud-herding. Cereals, fruits, and vegetables are all grown in the Dusts using these techniques, with an unsurprising preference for drought-tolerant cultivars, often in complex rotation patterns. In relatively wetter regions of the Isle of Yore, drylands farming also occurs, with meticulous use of windbreaks, alleycropping, and pegasus magic in an attempt to avoid damaging dust storms. In the short to medium term, the food supply is reasonably secure. Famines have occurred in the past and are sometimes drivers for mass migrations to unaffected areas.
Sociologically, most agriculture on the Isle of Yore is done under a feudal system with free peasant farmers (despite the Dark Age, Equine civilization never had substantial pony serfdom, although non-equines are sometimes subjected to it.) Such farmers may either own their own land but owe some degree of obligations to their lord, or they may cultivate the manor’s land in exchange for various compensation. As the labor of peasants is valuable and Equine peasants have the freedom to move from manor to manor, theirs is not a very bad lot, although it is also not a high one in society. A significant minority of agriculture is performed by enterprising farmers under democratic leadership, especially near cities with non-feudal governance.