Rituparna Chatterjee – Mumbai
Located around 120 km from Indore is Fort Amla, established by the descendents of Bappa Rawal, one of the most powerful and famous rulers of the Mewar Dynasty. Fort Amla which is presently a fort cum heritage hotel having a 300 acre farm near Ujjain has been promoting agritourism by conducting farm visits for its leisure guests and agriculturalists to help them explore the farming techniques of a variety of crops like soybean, wheat, green peas, tomatoes, green chilies, pomegranate, mango, guava, among others. Elaborating on this, Raghavendra Singh, owner, Fort Amla stated, “While for leisure guests it is more of an experience, for agriculturalists it is about scientific technological interactions. A month and a half back we had a group of 40 Brazilian farmers coming in to study soybean. They had interacted with scientists, research scholars, agricultural colleges, farmers here about specific fertiliser applications. Now we have an enquiry coming in for rice and we also have a group of farmers coming in January 2016 from France for grapes. Here we are merging the benefits of tourism with agriculture.” Apart from agriculturalists, leisure guests can also experience the farm life. For instance, during winter season guests can go to the fields to pluck their own vegetables, bring them back to the hotel and have them served in the evening. They can also sit on a tractor and experience sowing.
The duration of each farm visit is on an average of three to five days for one crop. The visit can also prolong depending upon the requirement of the guests. “With agritourism gaining interest, we take visitors to either the same farms or newer farms which are doing well. Post their visits, we remain in touch with them via email,” explained Singh.
When asked about the need for developing agritourism in the state, he opined, “Madhya Pradesh is an agro-climatic region. The state is the largest producer of soybean in the country and its next competitor is Mexico. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have already been promoting agritourism and we have recently started doing the same. Such initiatives not only bring in tourists but also enable farmers to exchange ideas. However, there has to be a concerted effort between private players and the state government to promote this segment of tourism.”