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ABSTRACT

Agritourism is the concept of visiting an agricultural, horticultural, animal husbandry or agri-enterprise operations for the purpose of enjoyment, education, or active involvement in the activities of the farm or operation. Though, the idea of agritourism developed in the 1980s in Europe but later the concept was much adopted by North American countries and Latin America. The initiative which started for enjoyment and stress relieving mechanism became mainstream farm activity in later half of the 20th century. Agritourism has also been a buzz word among new generation agripreneurs who wish to transform portion of their farm into tourism hotspot for learners and holiday seekers. But, the concerted global efforts to promote this emerging ecofriendly agri venture into mainstream tourism are due for long. Policy and research backstopping for up scaling this agribusiness activity is the need of the hour to make it economically viable for long period for small and medium farmers as in case of India.

The 20th century is considered to have been the age of specialization, concentration, increased efficiency of work and unification of products and services. These tendencies result from the theory of production scale. Agritourism is a phenomenon initiating new trends in modern economics resulted from farm diversification. It is becoming a channel of direct sales of local products, made in small amounts. In this sense it diversifies what is unified by supermarkets and large processing companies (Phelan, 2014). Agritourism has been started as complementary activity in states such as Maharashtra and Goa but later found out to be profitable new agri venture. The following paragraphs would explain the overview of agritourism in India and world. 

 Agritourism in India

 

The last few years have seen the concept of rural tourism gaining impetus as an allied area of income generation in agriculture. Realizing this, the government of India is encouraging active rural tourism to increase revenue generations options for the rural section. The Ministry of tourism in 2002-03 went ahead with the proposal of “Rural Tourism” to showcase, art, culture and heritage through rural life in villages. It also gave an option for inclusion of the natural environment as in natural Flora and Fauna along with art & craft, handloom, and textiles. It will promote local resource, organic farming, community composting at village level (Mukherjee et al., 2017). The intention is a dual purpose: firstly, to benefit the rural community economically and socially and secondly to enable interaction between tourists and rural people for a mutually enriching experience. The promotion of village tourism is also aimed at generating revenue for

 

the rural communities through tourists’ visits, thereby stopping or at least reducing the exodus from rural to urban areas.

 

The state of Maharashtra is the pioneer state to develop and endorse Agri Tourism in the country. Agri Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC) established in 2005 and started the pilot Agri tourism project of 28 acres in Palshiwadi, Tal Baramati Dist Pune, and 70 km from Pune city. The main activities include operating its Agri tourism centre of its own along with encouraging other potential and desiring farmers to take up Agri tourism venture. ATDC conducts training and research programs in the state. This is an umbrella platform wherein most of the agritourism sites are listed along with their contact details and price package.

Tourism is one of the key areas which can strengthen socio-economic activities of Himachal Pradesh besides attracting tourists to the land of enthralling beauty. The Himachal Pradesh Government has recently launched a scheme known as “Har Gaon Ki Kahani” (story of every village), in addition to “Home Stay Scheme”, which is attracting a large number of tourists to lesser known and remote destinations of the State from few years. Under “Har Gaon Ki Kahani” scheme, the fascinating tales, folklore and anecdotes related to remote villages in Himachal Pradesh are set to attract tourists.

The Rajasthan government has decided to promote agri-tourism vigorously. The convergence of tourism and agriculture will not only support the farmers with additional revenue and better sustainability but also create a multiplier effect on employment generation. It includes a mega food park at Roopnagar in Ajmer, which facilitates for visiting the organic farms and learns about different agriculture practices and produce. Government is considering developing similar kind of visits to orange orchards of Jhalawar and Sri Ganganagar, where tourists can see citrus fruits plants, taste them and understand the processing of fruits. Agritourism venture is also being promoted in upcoming Global Rajasthan Agritech Meet (GRAM).

In order to promote agri tourism concept, Govt. of Karnataka has come up with “Agri Tourism” in its Tourism Policy 2015 as one of its tourism products. Set guidelines to be followed are issued to the agritourism centres for maintaining authenticity and approval from government. Bringing regulation to tourists visit can enhance the opportunities in agri tourism. This will not only help in increase in income of the farm, but also creates an atmosphere of entrepreneurship in agriculture. Agri-tourist involvement in basic agriculture activities such as milching, harvesting competitions, tree climbing, bullock cart race, buffalo race in wet fields namely “Kambala” in Karnataka, shooting a coconut target, fishing etc. could generate enormous joy at least cost. There is enough scope to expend this venture into core agricultural production belts such as northern Karnataka and central Karnataka apart from present area of Western Ghats and coastal area.

Villages in Kerala have made a concoction of its hospitality with the traditional way of farming to attract more tourists, creating a novel concept called “Farm Tourism/niche tourism’’. Kerala is undoubtedly India’s most important plantation state with nearly half of the plantation area in the country and a major interest in all the four crops-tea, coffee, rubber and cardamom. Pathanamthitta is a spot on farm tourism destination housing tropical diversity with fertile agricultural land where plantations, paddy, tapioca, varieties of vegetables and spices like cardamom, pepper etc. are extensively cultivated. The other famous destinations include Idulkki, Trishur, Kottayam, Mattupetty in Munnar, Palakkad, Wayanad and many others.

The Uttar Pradesh (UP) arm of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has approved this agribusiness concept, agri-tourism, to attract tourists and also help the farmers and the rural community of the state make money. The Uttar Pradesh CII has joined hands with the Strategic Initiative and Advisory Government (SIG), an initiative of Delhi-based Yes Bank, to conduct a research on the same.

The concept of agritourism venture is not new to Goa which has wide experience in hosting the ecotourism and niche tourism but not pure agritourism. It is expected that by the year 2020, about 28 lakhs tourists may be visiting Goa and this number might go up by the year 2030 (Department of Tourism , Goa) taking into account the expected rise in number of tourists, it therefore offers a immense scope of economic opportunities for people of Goa. Having the direct and indirect linkages with other sectors of the economy of the State, agritourism has a bright future. Paradigm shift from “on shore tourism” to “off shore tourism” is a key turning point in Goa Tourism industry that has envisaged a tremendous potential (George & Nedelea, 2007). 

 Agritourism in United States of America (USA)                                                 

The United States started Agritourism in the early 1800s (Karabati et al., 2009). Agritourism and entertaining farming enterprises also called agritainment has a widespread history in the United States. Researchers found that traces of the farm tourism and recreation dates back to the 1800s when families started visited farming relatives in an attempt to escape from the city’s summer heat. In 1893, fourteen farmers in Dutchess County, New York, created an educational tour using crop art as the central point. Their goal was to publicize the situation of the farmers and create a positive image for agriculture with the next generation consumers. The art consisted of large sculptures made from hay bales and other farm products.

 Agritourism in China

The great achievement on the urbanization and economy growth ever since the 1970s China is fast development of agritourismand promotes it. Agritourism has raised more attention in the country over the past years both for the tourists and farmers. In 2012, there were 1.3 leisure farming and agritourism businesses all over the country that were created and helped create employment for 6.9 percent of the total rural labor force. These enterprises brought in annual revenue of over 240 billion yuan from the 800 million tourists who visited rural China.

In 2016, the number of tourists increased to 2.1 billion people, who brought in an estimated 570 billion yuan that helped 6.72 million households in rural China. The available studies demonstrated that the attention to the food and the desire of rural culture for the consumer will promote the continual growth trend of consumption for the agritourism.

 Agritourism in Thailand

In Thailand, agritourism has been used as one of the medium to attract tourists from all over the world. Agritourism has created a great impact by having a record of more than half a million tourists visiting farm areas in a national scheme since the advent of Agritourism in Thailand in 2002, (Taemsaran, 2005). Agricultural Training Institute, Philippines organizes training to the farmers who are interested to develop and manage agri-tourism business in their respective farms.

Agritourism in Europe

In Europe, Agritourism has become a way of life for Europeans as a large percentage of Europeans take farm holidays (Frater, 1983). In Europe Farm tourism is long established, but for the farming community both as a tourism resource and as a source of revenue recently it has increased. The UN Economic Commission for Europe and the FAO in 1982 held a symposium to study on the effects of tourism on agriculture and the possibilities for integrating the two for the development of rural areas. 

 

Agritourism in Spain

The country highly developed in tourist sub sector. The total number of agro tourist farms and villas amount to tens of thousands. Agri-tourism means travel through the famous wine regions; rest on the seashore and learning cultural and life is the one line definition for this country.  “Finca” is the most common form of rural hotels. In Spain finca is a country house or an entire farm which offers its services to the agritourists.

 Agritourism in Italy

Italy is a trendsetter in agro-tourism. Italian cuisine and its beautiful landscape are the two key ingredients that enabled agro-tourism in Italy to gain success in farm tourism. Olive groves, wine plantations, oil mills, mozzarella cheese and famous pasta forms are all great contributions to the success of agro-tourism. Italian cookery and picturesque nature of the Apennines allow tourism to flourish at many rural estates and farmers in Italy.

 

Agritourism in Africa

Agritourism has a short history and in most countries in Africa, it is at the stages developing. Spatial Development Initiatives (SDIs) are being implemented by the South African government, with a specific focus on the Wild Coast agritourism.

 Agritourism in its initial stage at Kenya comes with the incorporation of holiday homes as well. The concept of home stays provides the tourists with a place to stay and at the same time join in the activities that are arranged by the owner of the farm.

 

Agri Rural Tourism in Australia

Agribusinesses such as farm stays and farm gate sellers have been operating in Australia for many years. There are dedicated tours operators who operate only in this sector. Many Australian rural communities had rural co-operatives and a hub, most often in the form of the tourist centre. Local authorities in Australia also have policies to redistribute a proportion of tourism-related taxes or other revenue back into the community for the maintenance of the aesthetic nature of the location. The community-based farm tourism /ecotourism is gaining importance in recent years.

 Agritourism in Israel

Agriculture is a major industry in Israel with the country being net exporter of food as well as a world leader in agricultural technologies. Israel is home to two unique agricultural communities the Kibbutz (collective community in which the means of production are commonly owned and each member work benefits all) and Moshav (the farming village where each family maintains its own household and works its own land, while purchasing and marketing are conducted co-operatively). Most of Israeli agriculture is based around co-operative principles which evolved during the start of the twentieth century.

 Agri rural tourism in Singapore

About one per cent of Singapore’s land area is used for agricultural purposes. Agritourism includes components like farm accommodation, water transportation, horticulture garden tours, adventure water sports, floating vegetable garden, processing demonstration and rooftop production of fresh vegetables.

 Recommendation

Agritourism which has seen global outreach needs overhaul policy for encouraging new generation agri entrepreneurs who wish to transform portion of their farm into tourism hotspot for learners and holiday seekers. Agrotourism is helping in boosting the local economy and motivation to maintain the same lifelong. To promote these public-private partnership and convergence approaches are required (Mukherjee and Maity 2015; Mukherjee et al. 2012). Concentrated global efforts to promote this emerging eco-friendly venture into mainstream tourism are due for long. Policy and research backstopping for up scaling this agribusiness activity is the need of the hour to make it economically viable for long period for small and medium farmers as in case of India and world as a whole.

References

 

Frater, J. M., (1983). Farm tourism in England-Planning, funding, promotion and some lessons from Europe. Tourism management, 4(3), 167-179.

George, B. P., & Nedelea, A., (2007). International Tourism: World Geography and Developmental Perspectives. Abhijeet Publications.

Karabati, S., Dogan, E., Pinar, M., & Celik, L. M., (2009). Socio-economic effects of agri-tourism on local communities in Turkey: The case of Aglasun. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 10(2), 129-142.

Phelan, C. J., (2014). Understanding the farmer: An analysis of the entrepreneurial competencies required for diversification to farm tourism (Doctoral dissertation, University of Central Lancashire).

Taemsaran, J., (2005). Tourists‟ Rural Exodus. Bangkok Post, Asia Africa, Intelligence Wire.

Mukherjee, A., Chakraborty, D., Shubha, K., 2017 Community Composting- a step  owards clean India Movement. Indian Farming. 67(3), 33-34.

Mukherjee, A., Maity, A., 2015 Public–private partnership for convergence of extension services in Indian agriculture. Current Science, pp. 1557-1563.

Mukherjee, A., Bahal, R., Burman, R.R., Dubey, S.K., Jha, G.K., 2012 Conceptual convergence of pluralistic extension at Aligarh District of Uttar Pradesh. Journal of Community Mobilization and Sustainable Development, 7(1), pp. 85-94.

 

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Overview of Agritourism in India and world_compressed.pdf