Monday, December 16, 2019

Agrotourism



When we talk about agriculture what usually come to our minds are, planting, tress, fruits and anything like these. Truth is, agriculture is more than that. According to Wikipedia, Agriculture is the science and art of cultivating plants and livestock. Notice the word livestock, even in the area of fisheries and any livestock also included in agriculture. Now, agriculture was also divided into many
sectors. One of it is Agrotourism. Again, according to Wikipedia, agritourism or agrotourism, as it is defined most broadly, involves any agriculturally based operation or activity that brings visitors to a farm or ranch. It has different definitions in different parts of the world, and sometimes refers specifically to farm stays, as in Italy. Elsewhere, agritourism includes a wide variety of activities, including buying produce direct from a farm stand, navigating a corn maze, slopping hogs, picking fruit, feeding animals, or staying at a bed and breakfast (B&B) on a farm. Like in Malaysia we have MARDI, in Cameron Highland. Visitors can come and experiencing the joy of picking strawberry theirs selves.



Agrotourism is a new type of agriculture that was combined with tourism. It is a cross industry with the function of eco-tourism on the basis of developing agricultural production. Agrotourism can be divide into three modes. Firtsly is traditional agriculture where the activities is mostly the tourist will go sightseeing at the demonstration of large scale  agriculture. Next is Model of modern rural entertainment through this tourist will get to experience the agriculture theire selves. The last mode is agricultural science and technology development model. It is a tour of tourism where the tourist can get knowledge on the technology used for agriculture. For detailed information you can click here.

In Malaysia we also have many kind of agrotourism. Some of it are Pahang National Park which is tourism in protected area, Agro Technology Park MARDI in Langkawi, Kedah and Floating Chalet PPK in Merbok, Kedah. At Agro Technology Park MARDI visitors have the opportunity to visit variety kind of farms and they can have a taste of freshly harvested fruits while in Floating Chalet PPK Merbok visitors can experience the fishing activity. Other than that, one of the most famous agrotourism activity that attracted foreign visitors is to experience village, kampung by staying at homestay. I can say the most famous is to experience homestay in the paddy field. Not just experience village lifestyle, visitors can also learn about the processing of paddy and enjoying fishing from parit. To read more on homestay you can find it out here. As for agrotourism in other country you can click here.

As we know, the word agrotourism is a combination of word agriculture and tourism which this two are categorised in National Key Economic Areas(NKEAs). Thus, agrotourism can give benefit to the country as it can help for economic growth. First of all, agrotourism provide educational activities. This will benefit our country as we can learn from the international farmer about their plantation. We can get information about the variety of crops, such as what plants that are suitable in every season, how to handle the plants with pest and disease and also get the knowledge about the suitable medium for each plant. With this information, we can apply to our plantation to become a better farmer. Besides, the product produce can the better one and can be exported. Thus, the value of our currency will high.

Next, agrotourism can increase income to the farmer and also country. Do you know why? Because with the green and colourful scenery due to the colours of the plants and flowers,it will attract people to visit the farm. Somehow,the visitors will purchase some plants that they interested to it.  This will encourage the income to the farmer and also m because the visitors from other country are also love to visit the agrotourism country. The visitors from other country might stop in nearby town to fill up the gas tank or do a little shopping and dining. Thus, it can transform a farmer from a price-taker into a price-maker.

In cocnclusion we can see that agriculture can have many income from all kind of aspects which one of it is agrotourism. Agrotourism can bring a lot of benefits. Other than the nation can gain income, exchange of knowledge can also occur because each country have their own ways on doing agriculture. The public can also learn on agriculture, how the raw materials and products  was produced and learn not to take things for granted. All in all, agrotourism is also an important part in agriculture.


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