In my opinion, farming is a tedious, low LP grind. It is just not very fun. I only do it because I need full nature for my silk (and my trees).
Perhaps some already submitted suggestions could be implemented to lower the tedium — larger seed bags, auto sort to plant high Q seeds first, faster seed dump options for useless seeds, etc.
Less tedium means more game time spent doing other, more fun stuff.
To make farming more attractive and fun; increase the LP, have rare and useful items like potions, "Lost" treasure, and useful artifacts (weapons, armor, tools and enchanted items) be "discovered" during plowing or harvest.
Finally, with increased rewards, include some risks like acts of Jorb er, I mean, God, natural disasters like storms or locusts, a set harvest "window" for optimum Q. Lots-O Stuff.
I can see some problems with this suggestion. Farming could become the new LP grind. Found treasures could be too good and natural disasters too harsh. Having a harvest window, while very realistic, could also make the game a grind, like silk is now and steel making was.
Still, I would be willing to risk this to add some spice into this aspect of the game.