Unless your society is a bunch of robots, in which you would replace food with electricity, your bunch of silly organics probably require lots of good food.

Agriculture is the practice of cultivation of soil to grow crops or rear animals. Agriculture is also generally the beginning of a settled civilisation and the end of hunter-gathers. Think about how that would influence what you write; a group of people in desert lands may never settle and grow crops, instead remaining nomadic herdsmen.

Why start farming?

There are lots of reasons why farming is better than hunting.

• Food security: Hunting depends on a lot of factors. Where animals migrate, the seasons, the environment. Farming and raising livestock also rely on the climate and environment. However, you can store grains for up to years, enabling you to survive long periods of drought, floods, cold snaps, or unusual weather.
• More things: Farming produces more food than hunting, and can thus support a larger population. Societies that practiced farming were larger and could overcome hunter-gatherers.

What will farming lead to?

Farming does a lot of things to you. For example, if humans never farmed you probably wouldn’t exist.

• Sedentary life: Farming ties the people to the land. People will create villages, cities, and civilistation on this land. People stop moving for the seasons and stay in place.
• Population growth: Since farming supports more people than hunting and gathering, populations will increase with the advent of farming.
• Heiarchy: From what I’ve read, farming doesn’t lead to heiarchies and social stratification. However, there is a correlation between farming and social heiarchies. You need decision makers at the top and leadership. Farmers and those that control farmers would be at the very top and control society (I suppose). This ties in with the question of resource distribution and inequality.
• Division of labour: Now that we have agriculture and we don’t need so many hunters and have a population surplus, we can divide labour and be more efficent. People will begin to specialise and things become more efficent and more productive. Besides, not everyone is good at farming.
• Math (and maybe more writing): People needed to calculate all the grain and people in a village. People needed to record that information.
• Government and taxes: The government coordinates the society, creating laws and bureaucracy. The government collects taxes to keep itself running.
• Wars: Food surplus and division of labour means we can now have soldiers, full time soldiers. Though soldiers were often just conscripts and levied peasants, there were still skilled full time soldiers and guards. With more food and people, societies can now start wars and invade to take more resources.
• Natural world: Farming drastically transforms the environment. Think about how much land in the world was once forest and grassland, home to millions of animals and planet species. Now, the land a few miles away is home to one corn species grown for pigs to eat in the midwest. From farming, we get deforestation, soil exhaustion, domesticated plants and animals, and lots of damage to the environment.
• Festivals: Festivals regarding farming, new cultural practices, religions, time-keeping to manage harvests.

Where do you farm?

The answer is as long as there is water, good climate, and good soil! You can really farm anywhere as long as you have the technology to support it. Irrigation canals, sprinklers, etc. In places like Arizona and California, water has to be delivered via canals to support any agriculture.

What staples should you grow? (probably not accurate information and unfinished)

Some ideas on staple foods.

• Maize: Corn is highly adaptable, it grows in many different climates across the globe ranging from Iowa to the Andes (though generally cold-intolerent). Like all grains, corn can be stored for a very long time. Additionally, corn has a wide range of modern uses including high-fructose corn syrup, animal feed, biofuels, and more. Corn season is usually from late spring to early autumn.
• Rice:
• Wheat
• Potatoes
• Cassava
• Soybeans
• Sweet potatoes
• Yams
• Sorghum
• Plantains

Other potential staples?

A bit more outlandish, but I feel these could work in a scifi or futuristic setting.

• Kelp/seaweed:
• Mushrooms