How to build a villager potato farm
Here we will build a villager potato farm in Java edition 1.21.5.
In this build we will be building a villager potato farm. This farm is perfect when you don't want to spend your time planting, growing and harvesting crops. This farm is completely automated with the help of two villagers. Although quite a simple build because of the use of villagers you will need to find a village that is reasonably close to your build.
This build works by having villagers plant, grow and harvest the potatoes for you. This farm requires two villagers to work. One of the villagers will be placed in the middle of the build that will become a farmer and will plant, grow and harvest the crops. The villagers will pass food between each other if they can see each other. When the farmer villager passes the potatoes to the villager, the potato will hit the fence post and drop down into the hopper and eventually into the chest for the player to collect. The player does not need to have any interaction except potentially at the start when the player may plant the first lot of crops to get the farm started.
Potatoes are used in a few ways in Minecraft these include -
Food source - you can eat raw potatoes though they only restore a little health. Baking them in a furnace or smoker turns them into baked potatoes which restore more hunger points.
farming - potatoes can be farmed.
Trading - potatoes can be traded for emeralds.
Breeding - if you have pigs feeding them potatoes will make them breed.
Composting - potatoes can be placed into a composter to make bonemeal.
Before being able to farm potatoes you will first need to get them to plant.
Villages - potatoes can be found in villages.
Zombie drops - zombies can sometimes drop potatoes.
Shipwrecks and chests - you may find potatoes in chests in shipwrecks or inside village houses.
Trading - Farmer villagers sometimes trade potatoes for emeralds.
Hoe
Composter
Hopper
Bucket
Trapdoor
Fence
Glass block
In this section we will discuss the materials and the ingredients that we need to make this build. This will give a concise list of the items and the recipe's to make them.
Torch
Chest
Hopper - to make a hopper you will first need to make a chest.
Here we will explain in detail how to build a villager potato farm in Minecraft. Please follow the instructions carefully.
In the first stage of this build we need to dig a hole and place water into it. This will be the centre of the planting area.
The next step is to hoe 4 blocks out from each of the flat sides of the block.
The next step is to hoe out between these lines. This should make a 9x9 block square for you to plant your crops.
As you can see from the screenshot the ground is already becoming watered from the water block.
You can see this from the darker blocks of tilled soil.
In this section we will build a glass wall two blocks high all around the crop growing area. Leave an opening on one side in the middle.
Next place a composter over the water block an then place a stone block 1 space above this. There should be a 1 block gap between the composter and the block.
Place torches on all four sides of the stone block.
The composter is used so that when your villager has spare seeds they will place these into the composter and this will turn into bonemeal which the villager can use to help grow the crops.
Here we will hollow out a 4 block x 4 block trough that goes underneath the glass blocks and the gap you left.
So working from the right, place your chests down next to each other to make a large chest.
Next place 2 hoppers that lead into the chest. This is the collection system for your crops.
Next you need to fill in the trough that we made but leave 2 blocks in front of the chest so that it can be accessed.
Next build the glass walls out from the wall in a 3 x 3 block square as shown, this should mean that you have a solid grass block behind one hopper and a glass block on the other hopper that we placed before.
On top of this hopper we need to place a fence, you will need to crouch down when placing the fence.
Ok, lets place a trapdoor above the the fence at the top of the glass block.
The next step is to add the villagers.
We will first place the villager in the centre of the crop area. He will change into a farmer, you can see this from the hat he is wearing. Ensure that the farmer has seeds to plant.
As soon as he receives seeds he will start to plant them.
Next we will place the villager behind fence post on the grass block. This setup will then produce your potatoes with no input from yourself.
Here is the finished build.
What can go wrong - villager not picking up crops.
This is normally because your villagers inventory is full. This will mean that your villager can no longer pick up the crops to pass them to the other villager. To resolve this you will need to create another villager to collect crops. Also ensure that there is a clear path to the collector villager.
What can go wrong - villager not breaking crops.
The most common reason for this is that mobGriefing is switched off. If mobGriefing is off the villager cannot break crops, use /gamerule mobGriefing = true in commands to rectify this.
What can go wrong - villager not planting or harvesting crops.
This will be because the job blocks are not positioned properly. Please make sure that the the villager can access the job block and that their profession changes, a farmer should have a yellow straw hat to show that they are a farmer.
How to make the build easier.
One way to make the build easier is to place minecart track from a villager breeder to this build so that you can get the villagers easier.
Additional builds -
Transport - you can add a transport system so that the potatoes can be taken where you want them to go.
Baked potatoes - you can add a hopper to the bottom of the chest leading into a furnace, this will then bake the potatoes.
Other suggestions for the build - to further improve this build you can actually link 4 farms together so that a single villager in the middle of the build can take the crops for all of the four farms.
