Farm tourism in Kerala is being developed as a relatively new tourism product.Kerala, being an agricultural dominated state, has tremendous potential for developing Farm Tourism in a big way without much additional investment. Reports state that Kerala has 30.22 lakhs hectares of gross cropped area which is 56.78% of the State’s total geographical area. More than 1/3rd of the cropped area contains plantations of Tea, Coffee, Rubber, Pepper, Cardamom and Ginger, and another 1/3rd of this area is covered by Coconut plantations. The State has about 350,000 lakhs hectares of land under paddy cultivation.

There is a possibility of converting potential cropped areas of the state as tourist attractions with minimum intervention to transfer the benefits of tourism directly to the farmers. The various schemes underway are intended to prepare the Farms/Plantations of Kerala to receive tourists by presenting a positive image of the farm and of agriculture as a whole, in view of revitalising the agriculture sector ofKerala through tourism.

The Government decision to allow 5% of the farm area for tourism purpose has been an encouraging factor for the tourism industry. Numerous projects are being planned by the state to prepare the Farms/Plantations of Kerala to receive tourists by presenting a positive image of the farm and of agriculture as a whole, in view of revitalising the agriculture sector through tourism and increasing tourist traffic to the state.

For more details log onto www.keralafarmtourism.com

Kerala - Tourism in a nutshell