Agro-Eco-Tourism: No Limit for Agriculture

Agro-Eco-Tourism: No Limit for Agriculture

Agro-eco-tourism offers an plenty of opportunity to green economy transition through investments leading to energy and water efficiency, waste reduction, biodiversity and ageold cultural and  heritage, age-old traditions  conservation, and the corroboration of linkages with local communities. It experiences the real enchanting and close contact with the rural life, taste the local genuine food and get familiar with the various farming tasks. It also provides to relax and revitalize in the pure natural surroundings, surrounded by splendid. Agri-tourism would also provide tourists with an opportunity to be close to where the 75% of Indians live. Real India, as we know, resides in the villages. A concept, agri-eco-tourism entails visiting a working farm or any agriculture, horticulture or agribusiness operation, for the purpose of enjoyment, education or active involvement in the activities of the farm or operation.

In the Indian tourism industry, Agro-eco-tourism is the latest idea which normally occurs on Agro farms. It associations with farming sector, tourism industry and farm business. It is indeed, the economic activity that occurs when people link travel with agricultural farm and products, services or experiences to cater to the needs of mutual demands directly. The concept is to tap the immense market of inland urban tourists who want to take a break from a mechanical life and enjoy the peace and serenity of rural life in its natural abundance.

Some agritourism and value-added processing enterprises can be launched with very little money while others will require significant financial support. The main challenge for agritourism operators is accessing funds provided by financial institutions. The challenge exists because:

1. There is a lack of farmer awareness of how to approach financial institutions.

2. There are problems obtaining the necessary "equity” position to acquire funding.

3. Financial institutions have limited awareness of the value and benefits of the agritourism.

4. Related value-added processing and are often reluctant to support funding in these sectors.

5. Within the farming community, there is some intimidation about applying to financial institutions for agritourism funding.

Hurdles in business are as there are no fix norms as in some other state of India for agro tourism due to which some people without having proper infra structure practicing agro-eco tourism centre spoils the reputation of agro-eco tourism. Availability of labour and marketing of farm produce is also one of the problems of entrepreneurs. As maximum farm are located in villages the lack of facilities like health, transport, proper publicity to agrotourism also affect the growth of business. Natural calamities also sometimes affect the farms making loss to the centres. Assistance from the Government is the need of hour to grow in this sector.

Agro-eco-tourism is the new value added agricultural business, for improving the incomes and potential economic viability of small farms and rural communities. Agri-tourism can take many forms like roadside stands or on farm direct sales, which can offer farm-fresh produce to travelers as well as interaction with growers.

Social skills and a scenic, clean, attractive farm are crucial for success in agritourism and can make the farms more ideal location for tourists. Agro-eco-tourism would secure a multifunctional, sustainable and competitive agriculture, maintain the landscape and the countryside, contribute to the vitality of rural communities, respond to consumer concerns and demands regarding food quality and safety, environmental protection, animal welfare, etc.

Urban People are more interested in how their food is produced and want to meet the producers and talk with them about what goes into food production. Children who visit the farms often have not seen a live duck, or pig, and have not picked a mango right off the tree.

As an enterprise, agri-tourism could be a minor activity that would support the other products on your farm. For instance, if your primary enterprise is livestock production, you may decide to invite school groups to your farm several days a month to learn about your animals and your occupation. Occasionally hosting guests on your farm would make agri-tourism a supplementary enterprise to your primary enterprise as long as the agri-tourism activities were a minor part of your farm product mix.