Introduction

Agritourism is leisurely activities in the rural areas that help a person

understand and appreciate the land and the people who live on it. In
recent years, travel has become much more than just ticking through
the mandatory list of local museums and sites. Travellers want to slow
down when they discover a new destination. They want to meet locals
in their natural environments and become more involved with the land
they are visiting.

With this in mind, agritourism was born. At its most basic level,
agritourism is a style of travel that takes place on a farm or ranch and
usually offers the opportunity to help with on-site farming or ranching
tasks during the visit. It entails a meaningful visit with a producer of
land-based products and services.

Agri Tourism is however not all about staying in a village and relishing
the food, this is an opportunity to be close to where the 75% of Indians
live. One of the best things about staying on a farm is that guests can
contribute to the place through their involvement. Our idea is to make
tourists live life like a villager, right from milking the cow, ploughing
the field, bathing in a well to climbing a tree and plucking fruits.

Why Agri Tourism?

Mother Nature is open door school without brick walls! If observed
carefully one can learn something or the other, moreover India is
Agriculturist’s Country, it is expected that we should know the
information related to agriculture.

Today urban children’s world has became limited in the closed door
school, classes, cartoon programs on the television, video games,
chocolates, soft drinks, spicy fast food, computer, internet, and so on,
they see mother nature only on television screen.

Now it has become very necessary that children know the

traditional way of agricultural farming activities, and other
businesses dependant on agriculture.
 Here children come very close to Mother Nature and learn
many new things in life...

Why is Agri Tourism important?

As commercialism and mass production become the
standards by which we live, agritourism has given people
who work in the agricultural and horticultural sectors a
chance to share their work with the masses. Some
agritourism experiences allow guests to buy food
products grown on the farm or hand-crafted products
made by the farmers’ families; purchasing these goods
helps provide ranchers who rely on their land with
another source of income.

Home and consumer education has given way to

technology courses in middle and high schools, and
many children grow up without ever really knowing what
the countryside is or what it’s like to interact with live
farm animals. Agritourism, therefore, gives parents the
opportunity to introduce their children to something
other than the city life.

Priority Needs in Agri Tourism

From the survey, it has been able to determine the top five priority needs of
those currently engaged in agritourism. They include:

• need help in marketing and promoting their business! (25%)

• need expansion capital (25%)

• need help finding qualified employees (21%)
• insurance issues (19%)
• difficulty obtaining financing (17%)
• Less than 2% felt competition was a problem

Scope for Agri Tourism

Agri Tourism has great scope in the present context for the following
reasons.

An inexpensive gateway:- The cost of food, accommodation, recreation

1.
and travel is minimum in Agri-
Tourism. This widens the tourist base. Present concept of travel and
tourism is limited to urban and rich class which constitute only small
portion of the population. However, the concept of Agri-tourism takes
travel and tourism to the larger population, widening the scope of
tourism due to its cost effectiveness.
Curiosity about the farming industry and life style:- The urban population
2.
basically which has roots in
villages always has curiosity about sources of food, plants, animals, raw
materials like wood, handicrafts, languages, culture, tradition, dresses
and lifestyle. Agri-tourism which revolves around the farmers, villages
and agriculture has the capacity to satisfy the curiosity of this segment of
population. Agri-tourism provides scope for re-discoursing the rural life
which is rich in diversity.
Strong demand for wholesome family oriented recreational activities:–
3.
villages provide recreational
opportunities to all age groups i.e. children young, middle and old age,
male, female, in total to the whole family at cheaper cost. Rural games,
festivals, food, dress and the nature provides variety of entertainment to
the whole family.
Health consciousness of urban population and finding solace with nature
4.
friendly means:– Modern
lifestyle has made the life stressful and average life span has comedown.
Hence, people are in constant search of pro-nature means to make life
 more peaceful. Ayerveda which is pro-nature medical approach has roots
in villages. Indigenous medical knowledge of villagers is respected.
Organic foods are in greater demand in urban areas and foreign
countries. In total, health conscious urban population is looking towards
pro-nature villages for solutions.
Desire for peace and tranquility:- Modern life is the product of diversified
5.
thinking and diversified
activities. Every individual attempts to work more, in different directions
to earn more money to enjoy modern comforts. Hence, peace is always
out of his system. Tourism is the means for searching peaceful location.
Peace and tranquility are inbuilt in Agri-tourism as it is away from urban
areas and close to nature.
Interest in natural environment:- Busy urban population is leaning
6.
towards nature. Because, natural
environment is always away from busy life. Birds, animals, crops,
mountains, water bodies, villages provide totally different atmosphere to
urban population in which they can forget their busy urban life.
Disillusionment with over crowded resorts and cities:- In resorts and
7.
cities, over crowded peace seekers
disturb each others peace. Hence, peace is beyond cities and resorts.
Even though efforts are made to create village atmosphere in the sub
urban areas through resorts, farm houses, it looks like a donkey painted
with tiger colour. Artificiality is highlighted and not satisfying.
Nostalgia for their roots on the farm:– Cities are growing at the cost of
8.
villages. Villagers are migrating
to cities in search of jobs and seeking comforts of modern life. Hence,
yesterday’s villagers are today’s urbanites. Deep in the heart of urbanites
lies the love and respect for their ancestors and villages. Hence, visit to
villages satisfies their desire. This is also expressed through the
hatredness of urbanites to flat culture and love for farmhouses located in
the outskirts of cities. Any opportunity to visit villages and spend time
with family is dream of any urbanite. But, minimum decent facilities are
always problem. Agri-tourism attempts to overcome this problem.
Rural recreation:– Villages provide varieties of recreation to urbanites
9.
through festivals and handicrafts.
Villagers (farmers) lifestyle, dress, languages, culture/traditions which
always add value to the entertainment. Agriculture environment around
farmers and the entire production process could create curiosity among
urban taught. Places of agriculture importance like highest crop yielding
farm, highest animal yielding farm, processing units, farms where
innovations tried add attraction to the tourists. Agriculture products like
 farm gate fresh market, processed foods, organic food could lure the
urban tourists. As result of this Agri-atmosphere in the villages, there is
scope to develop Agri-tourism products like Agri-shopping, culinary
tourism, pick and own your tree/plot, bed and breakfast, bullock cart
riding, camel riding, boating, fishing, herbal walk, rural games and health
(Ayurvedic) tourism.
Educational value of Agri-Tourism:- Agri-tourism could create awareness
10.
about rural life and knowledge
about agriculture science among urban school childrens. It provides a
best alternative for school picnics which are urban based. It provides
opportunity for hands on experience for urban college students in
Agriculture. It is a means for providing training to future farmers. It
would be effectively used as educational and training tool to train
agriculture and line department officers. This provides unique
opportunity for education through recreation where learning is fun
effective and easy. Seeing is believing, doing is learning and most
importantly experiences are USP of Agri-tourism.

The future and benefits of agro tourism

Agricultural and on-farm nature tourism can be defined as businesses run

by farmers as part of their normal operations for the enjoyment and
education of visitors.
Agricultural and nature tourism have the potential to generate increased
on-farm revenues, and, given strategic management, could also boost farm
profitability. Additionally, since the majority of the public may have little or
no contact with agriculture, on-farm tourism is also a way by which non-
farmers can learn about agriculture and, in turn, support farm products
through increased purchases made directly or indirectly from family farms.
This is particularly so in Malta, as the country's small size makes farms
within reach of the public.
Agro tourism has existed in the Maltese islands for generations. With the
introduction of cars, the town folk was able to visit the countryside over the
weekends in order to go for a stroll and, at the same time, buy fresh
produce off the farmers. It was a common thing for city dwellers to take
their children to the countryside in spring in order to buy fresh
strawberries directly from the farmers, especially in the north or west part
of Malta.
Nowadays agro tourism has changed and has developed into an important
part of the tourist sector in the Mediterranean. This is particularly so in
certain remote areas and small islands in the region where there is little
else to see but the beautiful countryside and picturesque views of well-kept
fields and valleys lined by trees. And it is for this reason that most agro
tourists visit such areas.
To get away from it all and to spend time close to nature in a relaxed
environment. And where better to do this than on a farm, with the farmers,
eating fresh produce at the same time, which has just been brought from
the field.
This has particularly been the case in Malta where, especially on Sundays,
the countryside is flooded with people trying to get away from the built-up
areas. Given our mild weather, the countryside is frequented for a good
eight months of the year, from October to May. Some farmers have seen an
economic opportunity through this weekly exodus from urban areas,
selling their produce directly to the consumer, thus bypassing the
middleman. Some have even further developed the idea and have set up a
restaurant close to the farm. Fresh vegetables, say lettuce, served at such
eating places would have been cut literally minutes earlier.
The added advantage of agro tourism in the Maltese islands is that since
the country is small, the tourist is able to link a visit to a farm with a
cultural visit to a historical or archaeological site.
Malta's entry into the European Union has given us greater opportunities to
advance this sector, both through existing legislation and through financial
aid to farmers.
Although there is no legislation governing agro tourism in Malta, yet,
several preliminary steps have been taken in laying the foundations for a
sound agro tourism sector.
Firstly, through the first Rural Development Plan, a serious attempt was
made at restructuring the agricultural sector. This has been done through
the agro environment scheme, the rubble walls initiative and the organic
farming project.
EU funds were made available to farmers to restore collapsed rubble walls
and, thus, enhance the landscape. The organic farming project rewarded
farmers for adopting environment-friendly practices.
In fact, out of the six farms certified in 2005, four are in various stages of
launching agro tourism ventures. Moreover, through Investments in
Agricultural Holdings (this is technically referred to as measure 3.1 of the
Rural Development Plan), farmers were given the opportunity to restructure
and upgrade their equipment and establishments.
An organic farmer in the area of Fawwara, Siggiewi, has made use of this
scheme. He has not only managed, within a year, to produce high quality
extra virgin organic olive oil that is fully certified but has also attracted a lot
of interest to his farm, that happens to be located in a protected area next
to the coast. As a result, he receives close to 50 visitors a week to his farm.
Through this venture, the farmer is not only promoting an environment-
friendly agricultural practice in an environmentally-sensitive area but he is
also attracting a lot of visitors to this remote part of the Maltese
countryside. Thanks to his example, several other farmers have shown
 interest in converting to organic farming and engage in agro tourism as
they can see it is a profitable proposition.
In this new age facing Maltese agriculture sector, farmers such as the
Fawwara one act as a beacon to the rest of the farming community.
EU membership has brought with it an open market, where the best way to
thrive in agriculture is to innovate and exploit one's knowledge and the
natural heritage in a sustainable way which can also be done by making the
best of new agro business opportunities such as those emanating from
agro tourism.

EXAMPLE
Baramati Agri Tourism
Baramati | Maharashtra

Baramati Agri Tourism is categorised as Experiential Rural Stay

Bara
mati
Agri Tourism is an experiential
 Rural exploration option that allows guests to experience lifestyle of
villages around Baramati as guests participate in wide ranging
activities and festivities of the area

REASONS TO VISIT

 Experiential rural stay located in Baramati

 Baramati is part of Agri Tourism in Maharashtra part which has 500 trained farmers and
152 agri-tourism locations across the state of Maharashtra.
 Activities at Agri Tourism includes Animal Feeding; Guided Crop /Vegetables / Fruits
farms visits and tours, Watching domestic animals and How to care for cattle, Harvest
festivals, Rural Festivals, visit Farmers' markets, Visit Taluka Milk Collection centers,
Milking the Cow, Temples Visits, Agricultural education programs etc.
 Guests get to play rural style games and rides such as Bullock card and tractor Rides,
Vittidandu, Gotya, Surparanbhya, Kabaddi, Langadi, Kho-Kho, Bullock Ploughing,
Lagore & Gallori
 Homemade meals served to guests to get a feel of authentic cuisine in rural Maharashtra
 Recommended for day picnics ex-Pune and experiential overnight getaways ex-Mumbai /
pune