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Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers · code 6310

Subsistence crop farmers

A phone can say when the rains are coming. The planting is still done by hand.

AI barely touches any of the seven tasks, from planting and harvesting to fetching water, gathering firewood and trading at the local market.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

Subsistence crop farmers grow and harvest field or tree and shrub crops, vegetables and fruit, in order to provide food, shelter and, in some cases, a minimum of cash income for themselves and their households. Tasks include - (a) preparing the soil, sowing, planting, tending and harvesting field crops; (b) growing vegetables, fruit and other tree and shrub crops; (c) fetching water and gathering firewood; (d) storing for later use and carrying out some processing of produce; (e) building and maintaining houses and other shelters; (f) making tools, clothes and utensils for use by the household; (g) selling or bartering some products at local markets. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Subsistence crop farmer - Subsistence gardener - Subsistence vegetable grower Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Crop farm labourer - 9211 - Firewood collector - 9624 - Water collector - 9624 Notes Workers in a subsistence setting whose main tasks are fetching water and gathering firewood are classified in Unit Group 9624: Water and Firewood Collectors. Workers in subsistence agriculture who perform a limited range of simple and routine tasks, usually under the direction of others, are classified in the relevant unit group in Sub-major Group 92: Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Labourers

87 / 100

Strongly holds up against AI

Most of this job still needs an actual human. AI would mostly be making the tea.

Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Not Exposed

38 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 7 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 12.6 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 12.6 = 87.4.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Not Exposed”: None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Pinch of salt: this number is probably too rosy

It only asks what AI software could do, and this job is 69 out of 100 hands-on. A chatbot can't do that part. A robot might, one day, and nobody measures how close that is.

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Subsistence crop farmers 87

v

Go on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.

Man v Bot

Where the bot helps, and where the human wins

Bot

What AI takes

The routine stuff. You may not miss it.

  • Weather and planting advice by phone.
  • Checking market prices before selling.
  • Simple records and payments on a phone.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Preparing soil, planting and harvesting by hand.
  • Storing and processing food for the year.
  • Building shelters and making tools.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Farming advice by text or voice message.
  • Mobile money for selling a surplus.
  • Drought-tolerant seeds and new growing methods.

Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.

Meet your two rivals

They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.

The AI

Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.

Threat level: Low

20 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 41 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Higher

69 how hands-on

Most of this job needs hands, a body or turning up. That's robot territory, and nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to give you a number. We won't make one up.

So could a robot do the physical part?

Less fine handwork and fewer cramped spaces than a typical hands-on job. That clears one hurdle for machines. It doesn't mean machines are doing this work yet.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 38 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

69 How
hands-on
38 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Hands-on, less fiddly work

The small print

They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.

From O*NET, matched to one US job .

finger skill 42.9 · hand skill 51.7 · cramped spaces 20.5 · averaged · rule: hands-on 50+ · fiddly under 39.4

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

The job, task by task

Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.

AI's favourite task here scores 23, against an average of 13. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 23

    Selling or bartering some products at local markets.

    Very Low
  2. 14

    Storing for later use and carrying out some processing of produce

    Very Low
  3. 14

    Making tools, clothes and utensils for use by the household

    Very Low
  4. 13

    Growing vegetables, fruit and other tree and shrub crops

    Very Low
  5. 9

    Building and maintaining houses and other shelters

    Very Low
  6. 8

    Preparing the soil and sowing, planting, tending and harvesting field crops

    Very Low
  7. 7

    Fetching water and gathering firewood

    Very Low

7 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Sidekick or replacement?

A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.

AI helps you
41
AI does it for you
20

Sidekick wins, by 21 points.

How good a match is this?

One Australian job matches this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 8999

So, should subsistence crop farmers be worried?

Short answer: not really. Put the kettle on.

No. Every task rates Very Low; the most exposed is selling at local markets. Phones increasingly bring weather, price and farming advice, but the growing, storing and building stay with the family.

Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.

Where this job could lead

None of the new jobs we've written up start from here yet. Could be you're the first. See the jobs AI is creating →

How are the neighbours doing?

There are 18 jobs in the “Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers” family, averaging 83. This one is above the family average.

Pit this against any other job →