cultivate

To grow plants, notably crops.

Most farmers in this region cultivate maize.

So unhealthy is this valley, which is the home of large game, that whole kraals full of people who have tried to cultivate the rich land, have died in it of fever, or fled away leaving their crops unreaped.

To nurture; to foster; to tend.

They tried to cultivate an interest in learning among their students.

Left also to himself by guardians[…] he cultivated more his imagination than his judgment

To turn or stir soil in preparation for planting or as a method of weed control between growing crop plants.