Agriculture tourism platform brings farms visits to life in NSW
30/3/2017
An alpaca farmer has signed on to a trail initiative of the NSW Department of Primary Industries, to educate city dwellers on the realities of the rural lifestyle called Visit My Farm. Daniela Riccio returned from 15 years living overseas to start a new life in the village of Laguna, in the Hunter Valley. Originally from Sydney they started developing the 20 acre property into an alpaca, garlic and lavender farm and in four-and-a-half years have developed a lifestyle they are keen to share with city dwellers.
An alpaca farmer has signed on to a trail initiative of the NSW Department of Primary Industries, to educate city dwellers on the realities of the rural lifestyle called Visit My Farm.Daniela Riccio returned from 15 years living overseas to start a new life in the village of Laguna, in the Hunter Valley. Originally from Sydney they started developing the 20 acre property into an alpaca, garlic and lavender farm and in four-and-a-half years have developed a lifestyle they are keen to share with city dwellers.
"[We wanted to] really just provide an opportunity for people to visit a farm for an hour, a couple of hours, a whole day, and really get some insights into what it's like to be a farmer, and learn where your food comes from." Daniela explains.
The Visit My Farm project is a social enterprise that uses an online platform to enable people not living on farms to contact primary producers. It then facilitates a farm visit for an authentic rural experience aimed at educating them about life on the land.
Visit My Farm was initiated by Sonia Muir and Kate Lorimer-Ward from the Department of Primary Industries
"The thing that sparked my interest was the disconnect between urban people and farmers, and how we might be able to get them together," Ms Muir, DPI's manager of business and social resilience programs, said.
So far 47 farmers have registered their interest from cropping and outback station operations to buffalo, alpaca and cheese farms.
"What we're trying to measure with this trial is whether there is a market for such an agri-exchange experience," Ms Muir said.
"I think already we've shown that there's farmers that are interested in jumping on board.
"The next part will be whether visitors are interested in having an experience on a farm.
"We're kind of market-proofing the concept. This, in its simplicity, is really pioneering that agri-tourism area."
Ms Muir said encouraging city dwellers into the country for a "sugar hit" of farm life was not tokenistic.
"A lot of farmers I've spoken to have played around with the idea of agri-tourism but didn't know where to start, how to start a website, how to do marketing," she said.
"So it's an opportunity for farmers to see whether they have potential to diversify their farm into a little bit of agri-tourism.
"If you look at all the data around tourism, people are wanting more authentic experiences rather than fabricated or contrived activities.
"I'm hoping that Visit My Farm will offer that authenticity.
"Hopefully that will translate to when people go shopping in a supermarket, they think a little bit about that experience they had on the farm."
