I had the impression that terrain in this world had such unfit geometry that sea and land transport was unfit for trade, thus relying on the air for trade transportation. In this case, I don't think land cultivation and farming would fit such an uneven plane and you'd need the resources to properly maintain a population that supports an army.
I could defiantly see a "spire-like" vertical farming ship that supports on it's many levels or stories, rows and rows of crops
--Each level would support crops at an inclined plane to Maximize the surface area of crops exposed to sunlight.
--It could also spin while in the air to allow all crops to be exposed no matter what direction the sun is facing
--Kinda like this
crops _l l_ crops
crops _l l_ crops
crops_l l_crops
--Being at such high altitudes, farmers would close off their crops in a translucent material. This is because high concentrations of winds mean increased transpiration and low temperatures, both are bad for max crop yield (Basically u want a floating greenhouse)
--The high temperatures resulted from the greenhouse-like environment could mean that the water vapor from clouds exposed to the translucent material could condense into water, thus funnel into the water supply.
--The bottom of the balloon (if the balloon is on top) could have a mirror-like material to reflect sunlight back onto the crops if the sun is setting at an angle where it is no longer shining above the crops.
That or the farmers on the ship could manually angle mechanical mirrors to shine sunlight onto the crops if the sun is below the ship.
I mean it's either this or an absolute crap ton of fishing
I could defiantly see Sky Whales as the most legendary, exotic delicacy reserved to only gods among men. Lets face it; they're big, can't hide anywhere, and we humans have a tendency to eradicate all the big and intimidating animals on earth.
-Don't deny it you want to hunt them, and there is now a reason as to why they're so ephemeral (besides, in the lore it stated that the ancients hunted giants)