Agricultural Tourism
SHETISAHAL or agro-tourism is the Holiday concept of visiting a working farm or any agricultural, horticultural, or agrobusiness operation for the purpose of enjoyment, education, and or active involvement in the activities of the farm or operations.
SHETISAHAL in general, is the concept of attracting travelers or visitors to areas used primarily for agricultural purposes. SHETISAHAL is small-scale, low-impact, and, in most cases, education-focused, a getaway from the trials and tribulations of life and to be in unison with the nature and earth. A unique holistic experience to enliven your spirits and energize your mind and body.
SHETISAHAL offers:
Overnight stays: Lodging and camping- Bed and breakfast
- Camp sites
- Youth Camp
- Farm vacation (farm stays, feeding animals, picking fruit/vegetables)
- Day trips/picnics
- Weddings, receptions
- Management of special events and festivals
- Music festivals
- Holiday celebrations
- Harvest festivals
- Rural Festivals/ Jatra
- Off the farm visits to the farmers' markets at taluka place, taluka milk collection centers, village fairs, produce stands, sheep/goat rearing farm, poultry, cattle farms.
On hearing the word “KOLHAPUR” one thinks of water fed villages, modern agricultural technology, co operative sugar factories, vineyards and blossomed lives of villages.
Kolhapuri farmers came together to do some concrete rural development work in the district. To give an impetus to the work accomplished by these group of farmers, to make work permanent and on larger scale, the SHETISAHAL was formed.
SHETISAHAL’S MISSION:
- To promote agriculture tourism to achieve income, employment and economic stability in rural communities in India, help boosting a range of activities, services and amenities provided by farmers and rural people to attract urban tourists to their area, thus providing opportunity for urban people to get back to the roots. SHETISAHAL started various activities of rural development like construction of percolations tanks, providing loans for digging wells, blasting units, supply of seeds & fertilizers of improved variety and also agricultural equipments. SHETISAHAL was registered with the purpose of speeding up the projects undertaken prior to registration as well as following aims and objectives.
- To popularize and spread through actual demonstration the cultivation of new varieties crops.
- To test and spread the use of improved seed varieties. To improve methods of crop cultivation.
- To help develop vocations supplementary to Agriculture. To train and provide skilled workers for industries. To educate and provide facilities to poor, promising and deserving women for earning their livelihood. To give them a platform and added revenue by promoting agrotourism.
- To organize seminars, workshops, and tours on agricultural activities. Practical demonstration of various experiments on crops and fruits.
70 to 75 % of Indian Population lives in rural villages. On realizing their difficulties and needs at SHETISAHAL we feel there are still many things than can be done for these people.
SHETISAHAL has been concentrating its efforts all along for the overall upliftment of the farmers in rural villages. 90% of the rural community earns it’s livelihood from agriculture directly or indirectly. To improve the standard of living of the rural people there is need to improve and increased the per capita production from farmers land. For this new science and technology will have to be implemented in their farms. The rural youth particularly the school drop outs and educational backward neglected rural women constitute more than 50% of our rural population. Unless we undertake welfare activity for this section of the community social upliftment remains uncompleted. As an additional value based income SHETISAHAL has given the farmers a platform and started the Agrotourism Business.