Taking Wings

Started in 2005 agri-tourism is defined as travel that combines agriculture and tourism. The experience itself is our product,besides which tourists can buy fresh products directly from farmers without any middle-men.

The idea is to make tourists live the life of a villager,right from milking cows,ploughing fields,bathing in a well,to climbing trees and plucking fruits. Also,because directly or indirectly we are all linked to agriculture and most of the people in the country would like to see how their forefathers lived,most of the tourists feel nostalgic after visiting a farm or working alongside a farmer. That is the main appeal of agri-tourism.

ATDC’s concepts and projects will be adopted worldwide now,and this will help in supplementing tourism to core agricultural activities and provide financial support to the sector.

The best advice I got…

It was Sharad Pawar who advised me to develop a model agri-tourism center wherein I can train the farmers,and support the policy makers with the research on latest trends and facts of agri-tourism industry; through which agri-tourism centers could be replicated in all the parts of our country.

The defining moment…

It was when we received the National Tourism Award as the most innovative and unique tourism product category in the year 2008-09. ATDC has carved a niche for itself and brought Pune on the international agriculture map and is extremely proud to have been instrumental in bringing about this change. It is an important milestone in India’s Agri-Tourism development.

What keeps me awake at night…

Unless our villages are self-sufficient,our nation cannot progress. We must go to villages in order to achieve development of villages. This mantra given by Mahatma Gandhi still holds true and I stay awake at night thinking up ways to make this dream come true.

I thought I would give up…

This thought did come to my mind when none of the banks were ready to support the project financially,assuming that agri-tourism had no scope. But I knew what I wanted and now I am what I always wanted to be.

My word of advice for others…

In comparison with the world,our country has highest cultivable land,rainfall and human resource; still,30 per cent of the population lives under poverty line. Youth like us should come forward and manage the resources available to lessen the poverty percentage. ATDC,Pune has taken a step in this direction.