Market gardening is the cultivation of fruits, flowers and vegetables (cash crops) for sale.

Traditionally, market gardening involves intense cultivation of such crops in a small area of land, in order for the farmer to not only have enough for himself but also to create surplus for sale.

Advances in technology have not only helped to increase the ability of market gardeners to increase crop yields, but also turn this into a economically sustainable business (see agribusiness).

Technology applied in market gardening is best known to most people in the form of soilless culture using hydroponics and aeroponics. These methods are highly controlled to maximise yields. Other developments, taking place in the form of inhouse research and development centres (R&D), allow more productive crop seed strains to be produced.

This allows for shorter growth maturity periods, and so more crop growth cycles are possible (typically, one every 25 days). This means a multiple fold rise in crop yields.