Home stay and Agro eco tourism: A case of Fulbari, Chitwan --Subodh Khanal

Agro-ecotourism, a combination of agro-tourism and ecotourism, plays a critical role in Nepal by using diversified resources, both natural and man-made, landscapes, biodiversity and cultural heritages. Agro-tourism can be used to motivate and encourage farming communities to raise their crops in an eco-friendly manner and to conserve the biodiversity of farms.  If the attractions on offer to tourists contribute to improving the income of the regional population, agrotourism can promote regional development. To ensure that it also helps to conserve diversity, the rural population itself must have recognized agrobiodiversity as valuable and worthy of protection. There are a range of other forms of rural tourism which are not necessarily a part of agrotourism in the strict sense - e.g. ethnotourism, project tourism, health tourism, historical tourism, cultural tourism or adventure tourism. In agro-tourism, tourists can find the answers to their questions about different indigenous agricultural practices, such as how crops are harvested, graded and preserved, how vegetables can be grown organically, how freshly picked fruits are converted into delicious marmalades, and so on. Farming systems and crop production in Nepal vary across the agro-ecological regions of plain, hills and mountains. Rice-based cropping systems, with wheat or maize as a secondary crop, are predominant in the plain and hill regions, whereas in the high hill mountains maize, millet, barley and buckwheat are cultivated.

While agritourism and other forms of related value added processing are seen by both the farming community and government as diversification options for maintaining business viability in the agricultural sector, the potential advantages associated with developing this industrial sector extend much further. More specifically benefits can be linked to the individual farmer, the local community, and the tourism industry as a whole. Farming advantages associated with agritourism include developing new consumer market niches, increasing awareness of local agricultural products, creating greater appreciation of the importance of maintaining agricultural land uses, providing farm family members with on-site employment opportunities, and strengthening the long term sustainability for farm businesses. For rural communities and regions, agritourism can be a vehicle for diversifying and stabilising rural economies by: creating jobs and increasing community income; providing a broader market base for local businesses; and attracting other businesses and small industries. From a tourism viewpoint, agritourism can be a means of diversifying the mix of tourism products and services available to visitors and uniquely positioning rural regions and communities for tourism markets. Given these potential benefits as well as possible costs, it is imperative that the proponents of agritourism development take a proactive role in planning and managing the development of this form of diversification.

Eco-organic tourism. When agro-ecotourism evolves around an organic farm, it is referred to as eco-organic tourism. The valorization of specific elements of the agro-ecosystem landscape offers an additional economic resource for environmental protection. Conversion to organic management in agricultural areas and the development of connected activities such as tourism are increasing. When farms are organically-managed, they increase the motivation for tourists' visits. New tourist expectations have enhanced the quality of the supply such as diversified farm landscape, environmentally-sound farm-house architecture and local/typical gastronomy.

Now taking the reference of case of Fulbari V.D.C. the context of agro ecotourism in Nepal can be described as under:

Fulbari is the smallest VDC in Chitwan district of Lowland Nepal. It occupies 13.88 %of the area of the district. It is 9 km west to the district headquarter and nearly 2 km from the Nepal’s only one agricultural institute (IAAS). Some households are pioneer in Permaculture promotion in this district and are actively involved in organic agriculture and sources for aspiration for the local farmers. They are socially and institutionally bounded in Organic Agriculture Farmers Cooperative (OAFC), perhaps the first one in Nepal.  OAFC  has launched “Organic Pest Management School “for six months in collaboration with Ecological Services Centre, a dedicated Chitwan based NGO. “We have learned innovative ways of organic pest management strategies “Trainees got opportunities to build capacity of local farmers in organic agriculture.  Realizing physical resources and human capital, Fulbari VDC can be promoted as potential destination for agrotourism business. This business can be launched by a local farmer or farming family or cooperatives for generating additional income through touring in farms, festivals and museums, selling farm products, and providing organic food and accommodation. This business creates opportunities for farm diversification and conservation of traditional knowledge and agrobiodiversity, and helps educate the public about evolution of ecological agriculture development in the VDC. Finally, it may enhance the appeal and demand for value-added products and direct-marketing opportunities that may stimulate economic development and spread the benefits to various communities in the village. “We are planning to develop this Fulbari VDC as agrotourism village linking with Ecological agriculture” Chandra Prasad Adhikari says. He also informed that international tourists from UK, France, and Italy had already stayed in Fulbari. “42 houses with 50 bed facilities are involved in home stay activities. One house is conducting home stay for formally registering and the cooperive is planning of group registration in coming days. The facilities of internet, hot and cold water and proper accommodation are also available. The visitors can relish organic foods. The visitors come here mainly for study and observation purpose.” Mr. Adhikari adds. According to him, the home stay in Fulbari VDC was first started in 2049 B.S. when the volunteers from the youth exchange program came for establishment of school for mentally retarded children. 17 such houses were used for the purpose of homestay.

Places to Visit

Chandra Prasad Adhikari has keen observation on the tourist appealing places. “Institute for Social and Environmental Research, Schools, Milk Collection Centers, Health Centre, Shrines and temples are the main places we can take our visitors “he adds. Other places that appeal tourists are the upland and lowland fields, poultry farms, fish farms, banana plantation, irrigation canal, etc. The visitors can see unique agricultural practices that help farmers fight against the problems of the agriculture production, storage and marketing. One can see rice cum fish fields, or water outlets, or modified plow, or organic fertilizer made from medicinal plants. One can meet farmer researcher innovating best practices in ecological agriculture and natural resource management for contributing to Nepalese farmers. Mr. Adhikari has innovated improved plough, herbal compost, protection net, water harvesting technique, earthworm cum fish culture.

Activities that can be done

Sightseeing of organic farm, rice transplantation and weeding, field preparation and shed cleaning, improvement of farm yard manure, compost and vermi compost preparation, training of organic agriculture, participation on farmer’s field school and many other such activities.

Visit to touristic destiny such as Sauraha, Kasara, Tiger Tops and Chitwan National Park,

Eleplant ride, visit to various community forestry such as Gyaneswor and Kankali, visit to ethnic communities museum and Tharu homestay  participation in the activities like awareness camp and cultural programme can also be a part of it.

Redefining the role of organizations

Organizations like Institute for Social and Environmental Research, Organic Farmers’ Cooperatives and Society for Environmental, Education and Development are the ones located in Fulbari VDC and Institute for Agriculture and animal Science (IAAS) in nearby Rampur V.D.C. These organizations have to redefine their role for institutionalizing agritourism in their organizations and developing and promoting this business in this VDC. These organizations should play to identify potential partners and organizations that can help in facilitation, teaching and research, dissemination, coordination and growth of agro-tourism as a distinct economic activity and require strategic planning, event management, joint promotion, advertising campaigns and information management. Developing network among governments, academic institutions, NGOs and INGOs helps promote this VDC as potential site for agro tourism in Chitwan.

Suggestions/ procedure for a farmer according to him for conducting organic production and agroecotourism:

First he should have a good knowledge and skill with respect to organic promotion, cooperative bases, FYM improvement, pollination management and the time period to transform it completely into organic farm it takes 3 years. He suggests that 1m border is enough and if the neighbor field is inorganic then hedge row plantation must be done, obstruct the water flow and if the area is large the products within 5m from that field should not be dumped into other produce. If you are in favor of change then first change yourself. Moreover according to him, a largely authentic natural or small-scale, richly structured cultural landscape is required where the attractions of large-scale monocultures are rather limited. In addition to the beauty of the landscape itself, it is important to have other cultural, historical or natural attractions, good transport links, because even attractive regions can be almost impossible to market for tourism if they are not easily accessible from the population centers, a certain level of infrastructure must be in place: e.g. transport, accommodation and catering facilities favored by stable political conditions: this is essential for marketing even major tourist attraction and  local people must be in favor of tourism. And after linking these prospects of agricultural operations and activities, organic farming, natural beauty and tourism the agro ecotourism can be sustainable and can become money printing machine for Nepal. Lastly according to him agroeco tourism can change the outlook of country and there is no need of going abroad and toil hard for money.

The meeting with Mr. Chandra Prakash Adhikari was a very fruitful one where we were able to know about his struggle, his works and how he became an organic grower, the prospects and challenges of organic farming and how can it be linked with home stay and agroeco-tourism.