The Kerala Responsible Tourism Mission (RT Mission) has launched an agri-tourism hub scheme to ready 500 farm tourism and 5,000 homestead ventures across Kerala by March 2023 in the first phase of the project.
It is in keeping with experiential tourism that is gaining popularity globally in the post-pandemic situation. “Our plan is to help open at least one farm tourism avenue in each local body, while people will be encouraged to set up farmsteads around houses. This will help in cultivation of vegetables, fruits, dairy, poultry, eggs, and fish, among others,” said K. Rupesh Kumar, state coordinator, RT Mission.
Such ventures bring about a participatory and win-win situation for all stakeholders, including farmers, members of the local community, and tourists, he added.
Food security
Explaining how farm and farmstead tourism can be linked to the Subhiksha Keralam project, which aims at bringing about food security by encouraging self-sufficiency in farming, Mr. Rupesh Kumar said, “Tourists and others who visit the farms will also be able to directly source the produce, thus laying the groundwork for the formation of a supply chain. The RT Mission will ready farm tourism packages in tandem with local bodies and also help market them. Other support systems too are under the government’s consideration. We have been enthused by the farmstead tourism success story of Kumarakom [where substantial number of hotels bank on members of the local community to supply home-grown vegetables and eggs].”
Collectives comprising groups of people too can go for farm tourism initiatives. Tourism Minister P.A. Mohamed Riyas has issued directives in this regard, it is learnt.
Accommodation units
A host of allied tourism ventures like mud houses, tent camping, butterfly gardens, and Miyawaki-model fruit forests too have been envisaged within the farms. A model destination has been envisaged at Ettumanur. It will attract both domestic and foreign tourists, since it is in keeping with the yearning to “return to one’s roots”, Mr. Rupesh Kumar said.
