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Imagine a thick layer of clouds, mist, ash etc of sorts that blankets the higher atmospheres of a planet such that nights are nearly pitch black and daylight is range of greyish (think of a heavily cloudy day during peak sun hours) to reddish/orangish (red because it's a longer wavelength. See pictures of California's red sky during the day during wildfires for examples). Note the range doesn't imply that the sky turns from grey to red to night. Rather it means on some days its greyish to night, on others its red/orangish to night. Occasionally there might be some breaks in the clouds/mist/whatever to allow direct sunlight. But it doesn't last very long.

While the cloud/mist/etc wasn't there from the beginning, it appeared a couple centuries before the start of the premise. But for this question and modern humanity, they've basically lived with it since even before the industrial revolution and modern farming techniques. In that sense humanity has had an easier time adapting than say plants or animals which take way longer for evolution

Assuming that humans in this setting are at our level of modern technology and assuming that they can't do anything about the mist/clouds/whatever, what would farming look like?

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What you are describing looks like a nuclear or volcanic winter, lasting centuries rather than years.

Large scale farming is practically impossible with constantly reduced illumination, only greenhouses with artificial lights will be productive enough. Reduced illumination means lower temperatures, because less energy reaches the surface. Winter is never a good season for farming.

Reduced illumination also means that water will take longer to evaporate, drastically altering the microclimate in whatever open air farming field there might be. I suspect fungal infestation would skyrocket, additionally hampering productivity.

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    $\begingroup$ The increased fungal factor might actually prove useful, if OP doesn't mind the people basically living on mushrooms $\endgroup$
    – Lemming
    Commented Nov 2, 2022 at 7:02
  • $\begingroup$ In regard to reduced illumination, is it because there's less sunlight coming in general or is it because of the wavelength of light that is penetrating through the clouds isn't suitable for crop growth? Secondly, would adding some opacity to the clouds/ allowing a bit more sunlight slightly improve the situation such that crops can be grown on mass, but are one bad crop cycle from massive food issues? $\endgroup$
    – FIRES_ICE
    Commented Nov 3, 2022 at 11:42
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Pygmy goats and understory plants.

goat

https://pixabay.com/photos/goat-black-white-eat-herbivorous-2709897/

When it gets dark, plants that need light will die. That means forests, and fields, and crops.

What is left is the plants that can survive in low light: ferns and mosses. These will be left behind when the forests and fields die. They will be very pleased. It was their earth first before they were driven out of the sun by those newcomers. The ferns and mosses will take it back.

Fern fields will cover the lands. And pygmy goats will thrive on their ferny goodness! Many ferns are fine forage for goats. Mosses too.

Your people will not farm but will instead have great herds of goats and huge areas of ferny land to let them feast. Everyone wins!

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