Basically anyone who has tried farming knows its pretty easy fact is the moment you get xp for the farming skill it becomes a number game even 100 players could be fed by a single farmer as long as they had enough planting space.
So what im suggesting is removing seed crafting recipes and using the salvage mechanic to create seeds. This could work either way seeds could be made if the plant is fully grown or if its salvaged another option would be collecting seeds only by using a tool both of these ways would make farming more interactive and more of a commitment.
Without a lingering reason to stay alive to eat this would be meaningless as there is plenty of food from just looting only if you cant loot for a long period of time do you need farming and even then it takes up space in the base.