ECONOMIC IMPACT OF AGRI TOURISM IN NIGERIA

1.1 Introduction

Agricultural Tourism or agritourism is any commercial enterprise that combines agriculture and tourism on a working farm, ranch, or other agribusiness operation. The Commonwealth of Kentucky (2011) defines agritourism as the act of visiting a working farm or any agricultural, horticultural, or agribusiness operations for the purpose of enjoyment, education or active involvement in the activities of the farm or operation.

Agricultural tourism is a rapidly emerging form of tourism in Europe and America due to the urgency of preventing the risk of low agricultural participation which could affect the economy of concerned countries (Kukorelli, 2011). Thus, promotion of agricultural activities through tourism is becoming a strong medium of encouraging participation in agriculture globally. Tourism is used as a recreational means of orienting and educating the public about the various aspects of agricultural activities. Unfortunately, in Nigeria not much is been done in this area to attract the huge number of the teaming unemployed youth to agriculture. The Nigeria’s economy is majorly based crude oil. It accounts for 95% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings (Uwakonye et al., 2006). Nigeria stands the risk of serious economic crisis if the petroleum sector seizes to flourish. Thus, agritourism is another important potential area for alternative national revenue generation considering the prime need for new forms of physical and social economic development tools in Nigeria. It is a common knowledge that in the 1960s and 1970s Nigeria was tagged as a country with substantial agricultural economy. The role that agriculture had played in the country’s history cannot be over emphasized taking into account the many developmental projects that were executed through revenue generated from agriculture (e.g. The Cocoa house in Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile Ife, Obafemi Awolowo Stadium in Ibadan and the like). This era witnessed great growth in the nation’s economy. Regrettably, in recent time the growth of the agricultural sector has continued to decline over the years as a result of over dependence on petroleum products.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that the problem of tourism according to Binns and Nel (2002:236) is the fact that tourism development can often come at a price and that the social gains are rarely balanced against the social and environmental costs. Secondary research which has been done by Hill et al (2006:164) indicates additional disadvantages of tourism, being the commoditization of culture, the displacement of people from traditional habitats, the exclusion or limited participation by the host community in tourism development, the uneven distribution of benefits of tourism and the tourist-guest relationship which is changed into a “communities- as- servants” type of relationship.

Erlank (2005:394) supports the previous noted authors and elaborates that the negative social impacts of tourism include the demonstration effect, breakdown of family relationships, decline in moral codes, re-evaluation of value systems and might even have an impact on the health of the host population or the tourist due to unfamiliar diseases which can be transmitted during contact sessions.

According to Sunnybrookfarmwinery (2021), the biggest issue with agriculture tourism is the workers are too busy with their daily routine which consists of growing crops, tending to their needs, harvesting and selling the product. They usually forget about taking care of their guests and this leaves a sore taste for the guest, who traveled and paid to have a wonderful experience. Big farms with corporate buyers understand the diversity of farm tourism but the ordinary farm, who can really use the extra revenue doesn’t think he can make some money by this additional income stream (Sunnybrookfarmwinery, 2021).

Lack of Interest: This is the harsh reality; most people are not interested in visiting a farm during their vacation. As a matter of fact, farm tourism can only take off with patronage, without the visitors, it’s impossible for a farmer to make money during the lean season. Bad rural infrastructure is a leading reason it’s much more of an obstacle. Farmers have to promote young people to visit the farm and be close to Mother Nature. Nothing otters a more genuine outdoor experience than a farm. Once again, farms need to improve their marketing effort (Sunnybrookfarmwinery, 2021).

According to Biomedcentral (2021), different researchers pointed out a set of different factors as challenges of tourism–agriculture nexus: demand-related factors including the type of accommodation ownership; tourism industry maturity; health and safety concerns; and seasonality. The supply-related factor as physical limitations; poor product quality due to missing knowledge about tourist expectations; high prices of locally produced food; technological and processing limitations; competition for labor; undercapitalization of the agrarian sector; and landscape. Market and intermediary factors, which include marketing and infrastructure constraints, mistrust between traders and agriculture supply and craft producers, prevent from better cooperation; middlemen are the third limiting factors for the linkage between tourism and agriculture. The fourth factor is government policy which includes unfavorable investment policy; lack of credit and micro-finance support; and limited education (Biomedcentral, 2021).

According to Naturetourism (2021), there is a counter-story of a farmer/rancher who got out of the agritourism because it wasn’t profitable. Most surveys of farmers/ranchers find that the business is full of challenges and hardships…and that’s just the folks who are still in the business. One study in California identified “dealing with visitors” as the biggest challenge agritourism businesses faced (Holland and Wolfe). A study of Pennsylvanian businesses listed property tax problems, high insurance and liability costs, and the limits of seasonality and weather as the most significant of the many problems operators faced (Ryan et al 2006). Similarly, a New Jersey study found that marketing the business was the biggest problem, with liability concerns and dealing with customers a close second and third (Schilling et al 2006).

In sum, agritourism has great potential for farmers and ranchers seeking to generate additional revenue, capitalize on underused assets, and educate the public. However, it is not a “magic bullet” and not all agritourism ventures have succeeded (Naturetourism, 2021).

1.3 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the research work is to investigate the Economic Impact of Agri Tourism in Nigeria. In achieving this aim, the following objectives were set out as follows;

1. To examine the impact of agricultural tourism in Afe Babalola University Farms on the host community; and
2. To investigate the socio-economic effect of agricultural tourism in Afe Babalola University Farms on the host community.

1.4 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• What is the impact of agricultural tourism in Afe Babalola University Farms on the host community?
• What is the socio-economic effect of agricultural tourism in Afe Babalola University Farms on the host community?

1.5 Justification of Study

The relevance of this research is that encouraging agritourism will bring people from different parts of the world who would share their own ideas with farmers and agric researchers. This can lead to an improvement in the agric sector. Agritourism is agriculturally based operation or activity that brings visitors to a farm or ranch. Also, Wikipedia notes that Agritourism has different definitions in different parts of the world, and sometimes refers specifically to farm stays, or elsewhere as a wide variety of activities, including buying produce directly from a farm stand, navigating a corn maze, slopping hogs, picking fruits, feeding animals, or staying at a bed and breakfast (B&B) on a farm Here are the benefits that can be expected from a growth in Agritourism (Businessday, 2021).

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

1.6 Scope of Study

The scope of this research is focused on the Economic Impact of Agri Tourism in Nigeria using Afe Babalola University farm in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State as a case study.

1.7 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials.

1.8 Research Methodology

The researcher adopts a multi-dimensional approach in her efforts to get at the substance of this work. The researcher made use of both primary and secondary sources of obtaining pieces of information. Books, journal articles, encyclopedia, dictionaries, magazines, unpublished project works etc were consulted as secondary source materials. Questionnaire schedule was designed as a primary source of obtaining oral information from the respondents. Both structured and unstructured questionnaire items were designed for eliciting information out of these respondents. People from the age of twenty were considered qualified as respondents. In interpretation of the data collected, the researcher made use of descriptive and analytical approaches.