Charting a new course

Agro tourism is a multi-disciplinary concept of a tourism industry that has been developed with quite few literatures rather than with several aspects of the subject matters. In general, the phenomenon is expressed as some thematic areas in the literature such as agricultural tourism, agri-tourism, farm tourism, farm vacation tourism, wine tourism, agri-entertainment, etc. These terms are usually used covering the ideas of community-based small farming or small-scale farm enterprises of rural households and they showcase the agricultural heritage, both regional and local, to the tourists. Agro tourism explores 'rural experiences' to the enjoyment of travelers aiming to create livelihood opportunities for rural people and generating revenues not only for them but also for the surrounded communities. Agro tourism as a sole tourism product helps the visitors to be familiar with the indigenous farming in rural areas, generally for educational and entertainment purposes. This rural learning is typically formed of extensive and attractive activities of communities that take place in the countryside agricultural areas. However, some salient features we can think about in agro-tourism initially, which include large open spaces, low level of industrial and urban development. We can offer opportunities to the visitors to gather direct experiences from agricultural, pastoral, and natural environment.
Agro tourism is a unique field of holistic agricultural practices covering rural environment with its best agricultural practices, products, processing and packaging, marketing, agro-based services, rural community-based culture and their belief system. We know the modern sense of agriculture is divided into two parts - urban agriculture and rural agriculture. Agro-tourism, however, commences the activities to strengthen rural economy and social development in general. The main criteria of such initiatives are land areas broadly, but not covered by the urban flavour like industrial parks, cities, towns, urban structures and suburbs. Agro-tourism mingles agricultural or rural settings and the regional products to provide a particular experience.
In the international standard, the scope of our work mainly encompasses several types of farming, e.g. human foods, beverages, fodder and fibre; livestock products; hunting, fishing, and forestry. When the opportunity is integrated in the tourism experiences, the scope of agro tourism expands into agro-based small-scale industries located in the rural part of a country and traditional services of rural agriculture with culture, beliefs and value systems. The striking general features of it are such as geographical locations, remoteness, disaster-prone, small-scale production units, low density of human settlements and low degree of specialization.
However, Bangladesh as a developing country has plenty of opportunities in the area of agro-based tourism. Mainstream tourism is still in progress in the country, while agro tourism is, however, a new concept, but it could be developed in parallel with the mainstream tourism activities just by utilising the country's nature of agricultural production. Bangladesh is naturally an agrarian country where we can explore the new dimension in the tourism industry beyond the conventional development approach in the sector. It is evidently proved that no big investment is required for such additional activities of agro tourism. In this regard, we are already doing a lot of relevant activities so far, but presently we need to develop some strategies as how and where we can frame our traditional agricultural practices aligned with the requirement of tourism attraction and demand. For instance, we can develop some small events like farm tours, farm stay with beds and breakfast, tractor or bullock cart rides, picking of fruits, pineapples, guava, mangoes and other horticulture items, farm zoos, and many other farm attractions could be operated with little or no extra expenditure on labour. In many countries this concept is utilised in the purest sense of nature and visitors. In such a case in Bangladesh, organic farming is getting popular nowadays. Therefore, we can think of it in developing an agro tourism industry in the best possible way. As more examples of these experiences we may include farmers' markets/holiday market (widely popular in many developed countries) to purchase farm-fresh products, floral garden tours, farm beds and breakfast, and participating in harvest festivals. All of these could be fantastic attractions in the agro tourism industry in Bangladesh. However, the full choices of agro-tourism products and services can be categorised under three broad themes - fixed appealing, events, and services. So, prior to having good management, we need efficient management and supporting resources to promote the agro tourism sector successfully.
Last but not the least, for all such initiatives environment-friendly approaches must be designed, and monitored to maintain the sustainability of the industry. In designing the process, we should keep in mind that agro tourism products might vary from location to location or season to season. As Bangladesh is geographically well-situated for agricultural practices in the world, so our thinking of agro-based development should not be isolated from the mainstream development agenda of the country. Moreover, the country's sustainable development goals (SDGs) strategy must encompass the economic factors associated with our tourism issues and agro-based development opportunities in the country. Unfortunately, it must be said that while economic growth is accelerating in our every sector of development, the tourism sector is not performing well. But apart from all of these, we had many success stories in the last decades, and we must be optimistic of achieving more successes in development, especially towards achieving the SDGs while the promising agro tourism sector can be one of the most suitable arenas in Bangladesh to improve the income and livelihood of rural communities.

The writer is an Environment and Sustainability Professional.
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