Agritourism is an activity that links the economic, social and environmental components of sustainability, strongly related to local communities and their attitudes towards tourism, so one of the solutions for rural areas can undoubtedly be agritourism. Agritourism can be seen as an innovative and diversifying strategy for farms, including recreational and leisure activities for tourists, with many economic and non-economic benefits for farmers, visitors and communities.
There are many advantages of Agritourism for India, where both agriculture and tourism are disorganized and in primitive stages of their development-
The per capita income of farmers in India is among the lowest in the world at Rs 9000 (approx.) per month. Agri tourism can provide additional income to farmers at no substantial additional cost. It can also provide more opportunities to farmers as foreign and domestic tourists flock the farming sector and try to use the opportunities that it has to offer.
Indian tourism industry is developing at a fast pace and still has a lot of scope for growth and expansion. According to WTTC, India ranked 10th among 185 countries in terms of travel & tourism’s total contribution to GDP in 2019. During 2019, contribution of travel & tourism to GDP was 6.8% of the total economy. India was globally the third largest in terms of investment in travel and tourism with an inflow of US$ 45.7 billion in 2018, accounting for 5.9% of the total investment in the country. Farmers can have a large pie of the tourism industry by integrating themselves through agri tourism.
Agri tourism is not limited to crops alone. It has great potential in horticulture, forest, organic and mixed farming. Many farms in Maharashtra like sula vineyard and farms are already using the model of agri tourism to supplement their income, generate higher income and create bigger brands. towards higher exports. India’s total merchandise export was around USD 303.7 billion during 2018- 19, out of which agriculture commodities contributed around USD 38.5 billion (12.6%). However, agri tourism is not without its challenges. The prominent ones among them are Agri tourism has the potential to create global branding of Indian agri products and thus contribute Creating tourist oriented farms is a capital intensive activity which requires investment in hospitality, hygiene, farm infrastructure, safety of tourists and organization of tourism activity from cities to the farm.
Small Farmers in India are often unable to understand English and only a part of India speaks hindi. In such a scenario, communication is a big barrier in the way of effective agri tourism.
According to agri census, small and marginal farmers with less than two hectares of land account for 86.2% of all farmers in India. Agri tourism requires access to large farms, mixed farming and multiple farming to attract tourists.
Despite all challenges, agri tourism is too big an opportunity to ignore. In a country where 41% of population is employed directly in agriculture (2020), agri tourism can only turn the vision of doubling farmer’s income by 2022 into a reality.