Session 5: International Agritourism - Pandurang Taware (Agritourism India)

Описание: Fourth generation farmer and first-generation entrepreneur, Pandurang Taware, grew up in a small village, Sanghavi, in Baramati Taluka, India. He is known as the Father of Indian agritourism and has driven significant growth for India’s rural economy over the past 20 years.

His childhood was immersed fully in farming and village life. His father’s desire was that Pandurang should study in agriculture and work for the betterment of farming communities in India however he initially studied Computer Science and worked in the hospitality industry for 20 years.

In 2003 he married agriculture with tourism and launched the Agri Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC) in India with a model Agri tourism Centre in Baramati. After running Agritourism operations successfully for three years, he took on training and skill development in Agritourism for other farmers in Maharashtra and as of March 2020 he had replicated this idea of Agri Tourism on 628 farms in more than 300 villages and 29 districts in the state of Maharashtra. The Agri Tourism Sector Survey undertaken by ATDC in 2017, 2019 and 2020 shows that 0.47 million, 0.53 million, 0.79 million tourists have visited these centres respectively, generating a total of 55.79 million Indian rupees for farming families and over 7,000 jobs for women and youths in rural communities.

Padurang has been a recipient of various Awards and Recognition at home in India and abroad and he is a regular speaker at various International and National conferences. He is the Regional Representative for South West Asia on the Global Agri Tourism Network (GAN) and Chair of the World Agri Tourism Day Committee.