THE income gap between farmers and urban workers has become a major problem in the Asian and Pacific region, notes the Taipei-based Food and Fertilizer Technology Center. The gap might worsen in the coming years, as that the Uruguay Round is being implemented and Asian markets are being opened to cheap agricultural produce from Vietnam, Thailand, among others.
To sustain their present standard of living, farmers will have to find new ways of earning money. Agricultural tourism can become an important source of additional farm income.
In Indonesia, rural tourism has been developed mainly in the plantation areas of Sumatra and Java. Visitors stay in hotels, but visit farms to see activities such as rice planting or rubber tapping. In Japan, the most common type of farm tourism is the farm inn, which offers accommodation and usually meals. Korea offers tourism farms, developed by a group of more than five farm households, and home-stay villages near tourist resort areas. In Malaysia, the government has provided most of the funding for more than 30 agrotourism centers. These are intended for education as well as recreation.
In the Philippines, agrotourism is mostly private sector-led. Former Tourism Secretary Mina Gabor, who is now president of International School of Sustainable Tourism (ISST), said the 4th Farm Tourism Conference next month is an ideal opportunity to learn and share best practices on farm tourism from the international and local experts in the field.
Speakers include entrepreneurs who blazed the trail and helped mainstream farm tourism, namely Cathy Turvill of Nurture Wellness Village in Tagaytay City, Robert Yupangco of the Zoomanity Group, and Nenette Aguirre Graf of Motag Living Museum in Malay, Aklan.
I’m surprised none of the resource speakers are from Negros Occidental. Our home-grown entrepreneurs have so much to offer. There are the organic farms of husband-wife tandem of Ramon and Francine Uy of Fresh Start, Ramon and May Uy Sr. of May’s Garden, Ramon and Grace Peñalosa, Dr. Alberto and Marilou Jo of Rapha Valley, which have been drawing green tourists from other provinces as well as other countries. The come-ons from these farms are organic production.
Then there are regular Japanese and Korean tourists who immerse with organic farmers supported by Alter Trade Foundation Inc (ATFI). The Korean visitors use these visits to inspect Negrense organic farm production under the second party guarantee system.
Much earlier, the Broad Initiatives for Negros Development (Bind) have hosted Swiss high school students in mountain organic farms in La Carlota City.
Ms. Gabor said the conference will focus on low-impact travel that will empower local communities socially and economically. The country’s emerging farm tourism sector will once more get a major push as a driver of inclusive economic growth.
In the Negrense context, we can make that an inclusive green economic growth. After all, there is nothing as powerful as all of us together: the local governments, civil society, and the private sector entrepreneurs.
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(bqsanc@yahoo.com)