Agrotourism

The concept of Agro-tourism was introduced almost a decade ago and defined as “A multi-activity way of sustainable tourism development through which visitors get the opportunity to explore the agricultural farms, activities and traditional and cultural elements of farmers life (Kumbhar, 2010)”. The core notion behind this emerging phenomenon of Agro-tourism is to bring people closer to the nature and rural lives in which they can participate, entertain and experience the pleasure of a different kind of touring.

Introduction:

According to data shared by VishenLakhiani (Founder & CEO of Mindvalley) “Between 2000 & 2016, the world saw much change as between 1900 & 2000.” He concludes that theworld is experiencing 100 years of change in just 4 years in the 21st century. The world is growing so fast and in this fast and furious race of mankind, however, one thing is missing that is ‘connection’. Although technology has joined the whole world as a family, there are very few joint-families left, as deep understanding we are having about natural phenomena as farwe are going away from it. Rural escape towards cities is increasing urban population day by day and the irony is urban life has been restricted to closed door flats, clubs, televisions, computer, internet, video games and unhealthy food habits consequently this unbalanced life-style and drudgery reducing not just people’s life-span but their HQ (Happiness Quotient),EQ (Emotional Quotient) IO (Intelligence Quotient) and complete standard of life. There is a need for a state-of-the-art concept which has the power to bring mankind close to nature in its holy form and align their calling to the same path.

Agro-Tourism: The Concept

Agro-Tourism blended with the idea of Ecotourism has the potential and edge to serve our purpose. Here, we are presenting the idea of Agro-Tourism in its novel form. Thequestion is what makes it novel? The answer to this is in the following inherent characteristics of it:

● Integrated farming (combination of agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, aquaculture, bee-keeping, forestry, pasture, animal husbandry and so on) is practiced.

● It is completely organic i.e., usage of inorganic fertilizers and chemicals are prohibited.

● Every single product available here is bio-degradable i.e., plastic and plastic made items are completely banned.

● Carbon-neutral i.e., every engineering work is performed either by animate power or green energy.

● To give the traditional exposure to the concept, a huge amount of research is done on traditional practices of cooking, farming, dancing, singing, festival celebration etc. and the same is recrafted in it.

● The environment of the complete Agro-Tourism setup has a breadth purifying sensational aroma of natural flowers and plants. The environment would also have the delicious sounds of nature (birds, river, spring etc.)

A day at Agro-Tourism

▪ A night at heaven: Imagine, you are sleeping among the trees (like Neem, Peepal etc.) which have characteristics to heal your body through their mediational aroma, your bed is giving you paradising relaxation because of its cushion effect made of locally available natural cotton which is further garnished by natural aromatic flowers and perfumes. A natural sound of nearby flowing river or spring (created) playing its sleeping binaural beats. Also think of a low flame Massal is burning at a little far corner to beautify the environment not to show you. At the end, imagine if it could be a night with your partner for the first time or after a long time.

▪ Awake at laps of the first ray of sun: You were sleeping under the shadow of the moon, stars or sky. Chirping of birds will play the role of alarm, if you snooze it Suraj Dada

(The Sun) will come to wake you up finally and their glorious awakening will fill your day with golden vibes. As you step out from your bed, you will find a traditional clay pot of water;have the first drop of water from this auspicious pot.

▪ Start of the day: As you will be free from daily activities and seek to brush your teeth you’ll not find modern pasteand brush while, you will find a Datun (engineered traditional brush made of branches of mediational trees).

▪ Morning ritual: Get ready for your morning walk and yoga sessions barefoot towards ‘morning ritual centre’. The way will take you in between the aromatic and floriculture fields, in the way you'll be able to see women in their traditional attire filling their clay pot with water, taking it from well through rope and bucket. The beautiful and traditional visuals will appeal to your eyes and the aroma of flowers will make your deep inhale and exhale pious. As you’ll reach the morning ritual centre, youwill find a group of people aligning for yoga and meditation and a yoga and meditation teacher (whose aura is so vibrant and enthralling) instructing the complete procedure in his captivating tone. This all happens in themidst of aromatic and medicinal plants (e.g., Tulsi, Anwla etc.) which is making every single inhale and exhale of you so special and healing you from every single suffering you’d in your past or present. And the sun is gazing at this wonderful scenery from almost 20° to 30° angle right above you. Chirping of birds and the auspicious sound of nearby flowing rivers or spring making it melodiousAs you are done with yoga and meditation, youare instructed to have a bath in the same river which isproducing an auspicious sound. In place of soap and shampoos a Multani mitti (a kind of auspicious clay) is offered.

▪ Breakfast (Kaleva): Live foodand drinks (not boiled, baked, fried and burned) are served in the breakfast which has direct linkage with longevity and biohacking (a science to slow down or even reverse ageing) (Source: Mindvalley Talks). An admixture of live plant leaves, roots flowers, fruits are served in natural wooden, bamboo or clay pot with wooden or bamboo spoon along with this a glass (made of bamboo, wood or clay) of buffalo or Desi cow milk enriched with natural ingredients like Syzygium aromaticum (laung), Elettaria cardamomum (elaichi), Piper nigrum (kali mirch), Crocus sativus (kesar), Anacardium occidentale (kaju), Prunus dulcis (badam), Rock sugar (mishri) etc. is being served. Just imagine its aesthetic appearance that itself blow your mind and detox your body.

▪ A glimpse of ancient India: After a live, green and energy-rich breakfast you step out to behold Agro-tourism and its beauty deep within your soul. And what you see, there is a group of people called Potter (Kumhar) making clay pots and many other kinds of artifacts with clay, pottery wheel and other traditional tools, the view and their work ethics just make your eyes stocked in their work for a moment. As you move forward, you see a group of people called Cobbler (Mochi) making footwears using advanced engineering in conjunction with ancient approach by using biodegradable row materials to give them natural touch and stress releasing characteristics (blended with aqua-pressure therapy). As you take your next move, you find a group of people called Carpenter (Badhai) giving captivating looks to wooden and Bamboo pieces with their handicraft talents and skills and at the end giving these pieces a form of beautiful product which itself holds a tag of nature-friendly. Next your eyes stop to look at the group of people called Blacksmith (Lohar) whose body looks like a WWE freestyle wrestler oiled with their sweat, making agricultural implements with their traditional style and alchemy. And, you know the best part isyou can not only look at these traditional human engineering but also can buy whatever you love the most. And, with this, I know your stomach is asking for delicious food, so let’s go for lunch.

▪ Lunch in traditional style: You are asked for hand wash and directed to sit (Palathi style) with other agro-tourist guests in the beautifully hand-crafted mat designed and prepared by handloom weavers. Then, a beautifully designed handcrafted wooden Peerha is kept in front of you to increase the height of your food plate. Anyway, the food is not served in a plate rather it is served in a clean and pious leaf of Banana but it is not like all the food items will be served in it while all the food items will be severed using different small plates (Katori) made of either clay, bamboo, wood or other kind of plant leaves, the Banana leaves only servers the purpose to give your food plate an ancient and auspicious look. A fundamental ritual in Agro-tourism lunch is that “30 % food of the lunch would be either fruits or living plant bodies/roots (Salad)” . There is complete science of bio-hacking behind this. You can eat how much you wish but you are not allowed to leave a single bite in your plate to waste.

▪ Not just watch but experience the life of Agro-tourism: After you finish your lunch, have a rest for half an hour at Khaat (a kind of traditional bed made of wood and jute rope, its making also can be seen within agro-tourism). Then, step out to take part in different agricultural activities going there, the farmers are trained to explain and make you learn their work. Your involvement with their activities makes them happy and gives you immense pleasure and you know you also can taste the fresh farm foods at their freshest condition e.g. if you are working at Guava farm youwill have the fortune to eat Guava directly from trees by your own hands. If you are working at a vegetablefarm you can eat raw (kachhi)

vegetables directly handpicked with your own hand and if you get a chance to work with bee keeping farmers, imagine you can enjoy the freshest honey.

▪ Evening refreshing drink: It is a most amazing culture of an agro-tourism environment where evening snacks are replaced with evening refreshing drinks. Where, you are served with a juice or shakeunder the same tree from which the fruits are handpicked to prepare the same. The juice is enriched with famous Indian Masale e.g. saffron, clove cardamom, black pepper,fennel, sugar candy (mishree) etc. and different other kinds of dry fruits e.g. cashew nuts, almond, raisin etc.

▪ Dinner (56 Bhog): After doing and learning numerous farming activities your palate always wishes to eat something so delicious that it is just not a food to suppressant your appetite but could give unforgettable taste and that’s what 56 Bhog was in ancient India. Agro-tourism is committed to give you the feel of ancient India too. Henceforth, the 56 Bhog culture is restored here. The dinner environment is enlightened with auspicious lamps (Deepak) of many varieties prepared by potter, candles and bone fire (masal) without any artificial light to give the experience of candle light cum open air dinner which also gives the feel of ancient India. And, rest is articulated as elaborated in the lunch section. The complete list of 56 Bhog cannot be explained here but briefly it is the list which includes a variety of homemade (made by Indian women) Papad, Pickles, Chutneys etc. with a variety of fresh farm harvests. It also includes the variety ofChapati made by a variety of floors in traditional chulhas (recreated with modern engineering). It includes numerous varieties of sweets and milk products and on and on.

▪ Ek raat kissa-kahaniwali: After having a delicious and unforgettable taste of 56 Bhog all the agro-tourist guests sit with the elderly (Bujurg) people around a bonfire (Sigdi) to listen their experiences, leanings and making of future plans of agriculture and different other activities to be executed. Meanwhile the discussion of these learned old age people also shares some wonderful Kisse, Kahaniya and Paheli they also share some horror stories with you. In between this all a delicious, detoxing tea made with different varieties of Indian ayurvedic spices and aromatic ingredients isserved.

And this all gives you the best-ever experience of your life. A life far from noise and free from electronic gadgets and close to nature and designed to establish real human connections.

About the Authors

Pankaj Kumar Thakur1*,Vinod Kumar Balyan2 and Vaibhav Deoli3

1Assistant Professor, Dept. of Agricultural Engineering, BBSBEC, Fatehgarh Sahib-140407 Punjab (INDIA)

2Professor, Dept. of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, GB Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar-265145

3Junior Research Fellow, Dept. of Environmental Science and Engineering IIT (ISM), Dhanbad - 826004. *Email: pankaj.kumar@bbsbec.ac.in