Maharashtra tourism has brought out key amendments to the State’s Agri Tourism Policy to make it more investor friendly. (Image for representation only) Maharashtra tourism has brought out key amendments to the State’s Agri Tourism Policy to make it more investor friendly. A meeting chaired by Valsa Nair Singh, principal secretary – tourism, Maharashtra early this week has decided to incorporate key amendments in the Agri Tourism policy based on the consultations with the Maharashtra Agri Tourism Development Committee.
With these amendments, an agricultural land if given on lease for a period of 10 years, the lessee can apply to run an agri tourism centre on that land with the NOC of the lessor. Earlier, the registration of an agro tourism centre was allowed only in the name of the owner of the land. This according to Agri-tourism promoters will allow small and medium farmers who are fund starved to develop the required agri tourism infrastructure in their farms to enter into a lease partnership with a private investor to develop the required infrastructure.
Equally importantly, as per the new amendment the agri tourism projects in the state would not require any permissions from the town planning authority to build up to 8 accommodation units in their agri tourism centres. Constructed area restrictions and permissions from the town planning authority would be required for commercial projects beyond eight rooms.
The agro-tourism centres can sell locally produced goods like food, handicrafts etc. at the centre as per the new amendment. Each registered entity must install DoT authorised centre boards with the logo of Maharashtra Tourism in the Agri tourism centre.
The meeting has decided to develop a model syllabus for agro-tourism training. A committee comprising Agricultural University professors, District Agricultural Officers, Institute of Hotel Management (IHM) members, expert Agri tourism centre owners and Tourism department officials, will design the training module.
Dhananjay Sawalkar, joint-director, DoT, informed the meeting that around 500 applications have been received from six regions of the State for Agri Tourism centres. The top three regions in terms of applications received are Pune, Konkan and Nagpur. Pune received the highest number of applications at 215, out of which 125 centres are registered. Konkan and Nagpur received 114 and 66 applications out of which 65 and 35 centres are registered respectively.
“The department is presently focussing on the other three regions viz. Nashik, Amravati and Aurangabad so that more farmers apply for agri tourism centres and register with us,” he added.
“It’s a win-win for small and medium farm owners and the investors. The new provisions will open doors for many agri tourism centres in the state and help agriculture sustainable,” said Pandurang Taware, member of Maharashtra Agri Tourism Development Committee.
