History of Agro Tourism

Agro tourism is a relatively new concept and since it is associated with farming sector, it is has more importance in agrarian country like ours. Agro tourism and its concept differs from country to country. It provides a consistent source of income to the farmers. There are many examples of villages, states and country benefiting from agro tourism. For eg. Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, countries in Europe etc. It is believed that the concept of agro tourism was first introduced in the countries like Australia, New Zealand and Brazil.

Now the world over, agro tourism is taking roots as an important sector of an economy. The countries like Australia, Malaysia, Europe, America, Canada, Philippines and India have understood the importance of agro tourism and hence it is emerging as a new and powerful occupation. It can be best embodied by the example of state of Malaysia. When there was financial meltdown in 2008 all over the world, Malaysia went in European countries and explained to them the concept of agro tourism. It also explained how it coped with the financial meltdown. Malaysian government also offered study tours to people interested in understanding the agro tourism. The agro tourism is taking firm roots in many countries as a supplementary source of income for the farmers. And since the concept of agro tourism is based on environmental sustainability, it causes least damage to the environment.

In India the concept of agro tourism took roots first in the state of Maharashtra. The first agro tourism center was also opened in the state of Maharashtra. The number of such centers in the state is increasing rapidly. At present there are around 350 agro tourism centers in Maharashtra alone. And it is expected that this number would rise even further. Chandrashekhar Bhadsavle an agriculture graduate first started his agro tourism center, ‘Saguna Baug’ in 1985. He has rice plantation, fish harvesting in farm lakes, Coconut, Mango, Chickoo(Sapodilla) trees, and other fruit plantations along with vegetables. Similarly, in 2004 Pandurang Tawre started his agro tourism center in Baramati. He has also tried to bring together all the people engaged in this sector to form some kind of association.

Manoj Hadwale, a post-graduate in horticulture sciences started his ‘Parashar Krishi Paryatan Kendra’, (named after sage Parashar who is believed to have wrote the first book which dealt with agriculture) in Rajuri village of Junnar tehsil in Maharashtra. There have been some innovative experiments too in this field. Ganesh Uttekar and some other young progressive farmers came together to establish a Farmers private company and then they started a Agro tourism center in the backwaters of Koyna Dam, in the village if Tapola near Mahabaleshwar. Thus many new initiatives are being taken in this field. 

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