Cultivating Experiences: Agri-tourism Co-operatives as India’s New Rural Economy Catalysts

For decades, Indian farmers have grappled with a familiar set of pressures – erratic monsoons, volatile crop prices, mounting debt, and shrinking landholdings. The conventional answer has always been to farm more or farm better. But in Maharashtra, a different answer has taken shape – one that turns the farm itself into a destination. Agri-tourism co-operatives have emerged as a compelling model that lets farmers earn from the land without selling a single crop, and lets urban visitors experience a way of life they have almost entirely lost touch with. This isn’t a niche experiment. It is a structured, policy-backed movement reshaping how rural India earns, organises, and sustains itself.

What is agri-tourism and how does it work? 🔗

At its core, agri-tourism (also written as agrotourism) means inviting visitors to a working farm or agricultural operation for the purpose of recreation, education, or active participation in farming activities. In the Indian context, this takes very practical forms – urban families visiting farms on weekends for bullock cart rides, harvesting experiences, home-cooked Maharashtrian meals, folk performances, and overnight farm stays. Visitors buy farm-fresh produce directly from the farmer, cutting out intermediaries. The farmer, in turn, earns tourism income on top of what the field yields.

What makes this model particularly effective is its low entry cost. Unlike setting up a factory or a retail business, a farmer can launch an agritourism centre using existing land and resources. The farm is already there. The culture, the food, and the agricultural knowledge are already there. All that is needed is some basic infrastructure, hospitality skills, and a pathway to reach visitors – which is where co-operatives play a crucial role.

The co-operative structure: why it matters here 🔗

An individual farmer setting up an agri-tourism centre faces real obstacles: limited capital, no marketing reach, no bargaining power with tour operators, and no institutional support. A co-operative changes this equation entirely. When farmers pool their resources and register as a co-operative society, they can jointly access bank finance, share infrastructure costs, market themselves as a collective destination, and negotiate with government agencies from a position of strength.

Agrotourism facilities can be established by agricultural co-operative societies, NGOs, agricultural universities, and colleges, in addition to individual farmers. Even Gram Panchayats can launch agri-tourism centres in their operational regions with the involvement of local communities. This inclusivity is one of the model’s strongest features – it doesn’t require a wealthy entrepreneur. It requires organised farmers.

MART: the co-operative federation that made it official 🔗

The clearest institutional expression of this model in India is the Maharashtra State Agri and Rural Tourism Co-operative Federation Limited (MART). MART was established on 12 December 2008 at Baramati, Pune, to coordinate the planning, financing, marketing, and liaison activities of agri-tourism co-operatives across Maharashtra. Its governing body includes 12 representatives from agri and rural tourism co-operatives, along with individual farmer members and government-nominated directors – a structure that ensures both grassroots representation and institutional accountability.

The federation’s formation was directly triggered by a concern about equity. With 80% of Maharashtra’s farmers holding marginal landholdings, there was a genuine risk that only larger landowners would benefit from the agri-tourism boom. To ensure smaller farmers weren’t excluded, the cluster-based co-operative development route was proposed, allowing groups of marginal farmers to collectively register and operate agri-tourism centres.

How Maharashtra pioneered the agri-tourism model 🔗

Maharashtra holds a unique position in Indian agri-tourism history. The Agri Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC), incorporated in 2005 and operating a pilot 28-acre farm in Palshiwadi, Baramati, was the organisation that first demonstrated this model at scale. Its founder, Pandurang Taware – widely regarded as the father of agri-tourism in India – built a replicable framework that combined farm hospitality with skill training for rural households.

The numbers tell the story clearly. From 2018 to 2020, around 17.9 lakh tourists visited agritourism centres across Maharashtra, generating cumulative revenue of approximately Rs. 55.79 crores for farming families and over 1 lakh jobs for women and youth in rural areas. Farmer income from these centres grew by 25% from inception. These are not marginal gains – they represent a structural shift in how rural households earn.

The agri-tourism model has now been replicated across 628 centres in 30 districts of Maharashtra, conserving village environments, traditions, culture, and crafts while generating supplementary income for farming families who continue their regular agricultural work during weekdays and host tourists primarily on weekends.

The Pune and Konkan divisions: where the model thrives 🔗

Geographic concentration matters in understanding where this model works best. Of all agri-tourism centres registered with MART, over 58% are in the Pune division, with the Konkan division accounting for about 21%. Pune’s proximity to a large urban population and Konkan’s coastal-agricultural landscape both make them natural fits. The Baramati region in Pune district is particularly significant – it is where ATDC’s original pilot was launched and where the idea first proved its commercial viability.

Policy and financial architecture supporting the model 🔗

The co-operative agri-tourism model does not exist in a vacuum. It is backed by an evolving policy and financing framework that has made it significantly easier for farmer groups to formalise and sustain their operations.

Maharashtra Agri-Tourism Policy 2020 🔗

The Maharashtra State Cabinet cleared its dedicated Agri-Tourism Policy on 6 September 2020, making Maharashtra the first state in India with a standalone agritourism policy. The policy formally recognises agri-tourism centres as tourism units, making them eligible for government incentives. Key features include registration through the Directorate of Tourism (with an initial fee of just Rs. 2,500), online marketing support through the state tourism department’s website, and online listing of registered centres. One particularly significant decision under the policy is the mandate of compulsory educational tours to agri-tourism centres for students from Class 5 to Class 10 – guaranteeing a steady flow of young visitors and creating an educational market that doesn’t depend on leisure spending alone.

NABARD’s role in financing agri-tourism co-operatives 🔗

For co-operatives that need capital to build infrastructure – accommodation facilities, cooking areas, recreational spaces – NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) is a critical financial partner. Agri-tourism co-operative societies receive financing from NABARD, with loans used to create village-level infrastructure that supports tourism operations. NABARD’s long-term refinance facility, available under Section 25(i)(a) of the NABARD Act 1981, enables financial institutions to extend investment credit to co-operatives for farm and non-farm rural activities. This financial scaffolding means that a farmer co-operative can access institutional credit without needing to approach commercial banks cold – state co-operative banks and district central co-operative banks serve as the intermediary channel, backed by NABARD refinance.

What tourists actually experience – and why it works 🔗

The agri-tourism experience is deliberately grounded in authenticity. Visitors don’t come to a theme park version of rural life – they come to an actual working farm. Activities typically include participating in seasonal farming tasks, watching and joining the process of dairying or horticulture, taking bullock cart or tractor rides, flying kites, eating freshly cooked traditional food, and engaging with local art forms and folk performances. Urban tourists stay like farmers, experience the farm environment, eat authentic food, and buy fresh produce directly – while the farmer family maintains hygiene standards, learns hospitality skills, and earns revenue that did not exist before.

The directness of the transaction matters. There are no tour operators siphoning commissions, no hotels capturing the accommodation revenue. The money flows from tourist to farmer family – which is precisely why the income impact is felt at the household level.

Agri-tourism as cultural preservation 🔗

Beyond economics, agri-tourism co-operatives serve as living repositories of rural culture. Village crafts, indigenous agricultural techniques, local festivals, traditional food preparation, and folk music – all of these become part of the tourism offering. This creates an incentive to preserve cultural practices that might otherwise erode under urban influence. Encouraging deep engagement with rural life – including local cuisine, traditions, arts, and sports – enhances the destination’s appeal while providing farmers supplementary income and offering tourists an authentic regional experience.

Challenges the model still faces 🔗

The agri-tourism co-operative model in Maharashtra is growing, but it is not without its gaps. Research on Konkan region centres has flagged a lack of formal training among operators (62.2% of respondents), poor communication skills (80%), and a near-total absence of co-ordination between agriculture and tourism departments (100%). Low entrepreneurship capacity at the farm level remains a persistent bottleneck.

Marketing is another structural gap. Individual farm co-operatives often lack the digital presence or brand recognition to attract visitors independently. While MART and the state tourism department provide some marketing support, the agro-tourism service providers’ union remains essential to the Indian agricultural tourism network, and expanding that support systematically is still a work in progress. The formation of the Ministry of Co-operatives by the Government of India is seen by experts as a complementary institutional development that should take agritourism on as a priority area.

The replicable model: beyond Maharashtra 🔗

Maharashtra’s success has drawn attention from other states. Karnataka’s tourism policy has included agritourism as a core theme. Kerala’s Green Farm project promotes agro-tourism with a focus on home-stay experiences. Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand have their own rural homestay models. Tamil Nadu is emerging as a newer agri-tourism geography, particularly for educational and experiential farm visits.

The critical insight from Maharashtra is this: the co-operative structure is not incidental to the model’s success – it is its foundation. Individual farmers operating alone face capital, marketing, and scale constraints that are very difficult to overcome. When they organise as a co-operative, the unit becomes bankable, promotable, and sustainable. Social equity-based development of agriculture and rural tourism has the potential to enhance rural economic growth, and this is best implemented through co-operatives and farmer groups including FPOs and FPCs.

The legal and co-operative framework: a quick note 🔗

From a co-operative law perspective, agri-tourism co-operatives in Maharashtra are registered under the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960. They can be formed by agricultural practitioners – including farmers, partnership firms of farmers, and Gram Panchayats – and are eligible for bank loans under agri and allied activity categories. The Maharashtra Agri-Tourism Policy allows a range of service offerings – from single day trips and residential accommodation to agricultural camping and farm produce sales – and mandates that registered centres be publicised through the state Tourism Department’s official website, providing an important government-backed marketing channel for these co-operatives.

This legal clarity – the fact that an agri-tourism co-operative is a recognised legal entity with access to institutional finance, government registration, and official marketing support – is what makes the model credible and scalable. It is not a pilot scheme dependent on one enthusiastic official. It is a structured ecosystem.

What do you think? As agri-tourism co-operatives demonstrate that farms can be both productive and experiential, should India consider a dedicated national policy for agri-tourism co-operatives – similar to Maharashtra’s state-level framework – to bring other agricultural states into this model? And given that the model depends heavily on both farming knowledge and hospitality skills, what role should agricultural universities and vocational training institutions play in building that capacity among rural youth?

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agritourism
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3. https://www.agriculturejournal.org/volume10number3/innovative-agrotourism-trends-maharashtra-state-as-a-model-for-cross-cultural-tourism-in-india/
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7. https://worldagritourismday.com/demo2022/about-us/
8. https://agrotourismvishwa.in/government-of-maharashtra-approves-agri-tourism-policy2020/
9. https://maharashtratourism.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Agri-Tourism-Policy-english.pdf
10. https://www.nabard.org/content1.aspx?id=548&catid=8&mid=8
11. https://www.fao.org/family-farming/network/network-detail/en/c/177631/
12. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-tourism/articles/10.3389/frsut.2025.1498749/full
13. https://www.thepharmajournal.com/archives/2023/vol12issue9S/PartE/S-12-8-256-764.pdf