These farming planets, in their own way, are as vital to the Imperium as its hives. These planets are given over entirely to the production of food, which hive worlds cannot produce in sufficient quantities to keep their huge populations from starving. Many a world has whole continents given over to livestock or fields of crops. Some agri-worlds are covered in oceans teeming with fish and a few are far stranger – worlds covered in edible fungus, scoured by swarms of nutritious insects or gas giants home to flocks of flying creatures. A few planets are used solely to provide clean water to nearby hive worlds. Agri-worlds are sometimes ruled directly by the Administratum, to help ensure that their produce is grown and harvested with maximum efficiency.