does it help them grow faster or is it pointless?

It's not really pointless - it depends upon what you're trying to do. Watering and planting crops does build your farmers' skill, and will help them become master farmers more quickly. However, it will not make the crops grow faster, so if that's your only goal, you can safely have your farmers work on something else while you're waiting for crops.

i got messing around one night & this is what i found out:

Food & their value:
Berries =2 food points
Veggies =7 food points
Mushrooms 8 food points
Fish =9 food points
Crabs =55 food points



Food & their value i have checked & double checked to make sure that this is the value of each food before i posted it ,so yes that is the true value of each food available on ISOLA VV.

The berrypoints can be more. It's 2 points when they get below a certain number, but at the beginning when the berry tree is full they're worth a lot more.

hubby said they are 7 (the berries that is) at the start of the game (he just started a new game)

If my math skills are worth anything, red mushrooms are 45 food points.

Watering crops seems to be the equivalent of "Fixing the hut" or "Examining the cactus".

It's just extra annoying because people starve to death when there are berries on the bush because the farmers won't do anything but water the crops.

They will only water the crops while the game is running, so if you don't want to micromanage them during a growing season, just exit the game and come back when the crops have come back.

Wow again! I didn't know this either; I hate to think how many hours my farmers wasted watering the crops! I really should check in more often! I also didn't realize that the berry count went down when there were less berries but I was beginning to suspect something funny was going on there!