Martian Agriculture

Agriculture is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Interplanetary colonization introduced numerous problems for agriculture in the various societies across the Solar System. Martian Agriculture focuses on crops made for cultivation on Mars and the difficulties therein.

Origins
As the early Martian colonies outgrew their habitats, it became clear that more crops would need to be grown than could reasonably be imported or contained in greenhouses. As a result, agricultural engineering became a major research field.

Early attempts involved domesticating baobab trees. This was encouraged by the Earther Preservation Society, as the baobab tree was in the process of dying out in the late 21st century. Baobab fruit is still commonly consumed today as a paste, typically served as a breakfast dish somewhat akin to yogurt.

Types
To perform agriculture on the large scale that civilization requires, many disparate techniques needed to be applied. First, most agriculture is plant-based, as advances in synthetic meats have rendered the bulk of pastoral industry obsolete. By necessity, some pastoral farms have been maintained, primarily for milk, eggs, and delicacy meat.

As far as plant-based agriculture goes, farmland is typically drip irrigated, with some variation in smaller communities. For example, the Basin's food supply is drip irrigated, while INSERT SMALL VILLAGE NAME HERE partakes in more dryland farming techniques.

Crop Alteration and Biotechnology
In addition to standard plant modification, allowing for more product per plant, plants have been genetically modified to thrive on Mars.

Coloration
With the red sky of Mars, green Earth plants are unable to absorb sufficient Sunlight. Thus, one of the early changes made to adapt plant life was to replace chlorophyll with phthalocyanine.

Desertification
Since Mars is a desert, to prevent excessive evaporation, plants have been selected to be woodier, bearing fruit, nuts, and roots, rather than leaves. Additionally, plants tend to be lower to the ground, which aids in preventing significant water loss.

Atmospheric Compensation
Lastly, plants were modified to be hardy enough to withstand the extreme temperature fluctuations common on Mars. To combat this, plants were modified to contain more insulating material beneath the bark. This, combined with the bark itself, helps to prevent plants from freezing.