Agri-Tourism In Kenya

The ongoing debate on who performs better in terms of revenue generation to Kenya through export continues to rise as the industries competes to outwit each other.

The major cash crops that are tea and coffee have dominated this arena since time immemorial and still continue to dominate and compete with other major tea producers such as Pakistan and Ethiopian in demand for coffee. Tourism in Kenya" has also taken the lead in bringing revenue to Kenya thus raising the GDP of Kenya to a level that is still rising. Hoteliers, Airlines and Travel agents and Tour Operators continue to enjoy booming business brought borne by the fruits of peace and stability in the country.

As much effort has been put to promote Kenya as a tourist destination, I want to bring into the limelight the idea of having to peruse other areas such as sports, culture, mountain climbing, adventure i.e. water rafting, bungee jumping,  conference tourism, eco-tourism and agri-tourism.

Agri- tourism and eco-tourism seems sometimes to be used synonymously but its not so. Eco-tourism  is the business of creating and selling holidays that give people chance to learn about a natural environment, and cause as little damage to the environment as possible whereas AGRI-tourism is the activity of spending your holiday visiting another country and staying in places in the countryside.

Kenya, is blessed with numerous eco-systems and in this subject we look at the nature of agriculture in Kenya in areas that have not been fully developed or are under research. We look at Apiculture – the study of bee keeping, sericulture the study of silk farming, agro-forestry the study of forests and forest plantations. Forest plantations in Kenya, help in acting as water catchment areas such as the Aberadres and the Kakamega rain forests and other, making of construction poles and electricity poles. These plantations last anywhere from 5years to 10 years depending on the stage need for harvesting – thus forming an integral part in the development of the country in urban and rural areas. The advantages of agri-tourism far outgrow the disadvantages and we shall mention a short while. Horticulture is another area that involves the activity of growing and studying garden plants. Horticulture plants grown in Kenya to name a few include flowers, green peas, carrots, lettuce, capsicum, baby corn and others.

The major advantage of all the above mentioned plants are the revenue growth of the country, more employment opportunities are created and peoples livelihoods are improved for the better, fall in crime incidences as people have enough, education improves as many children are able to go to school.

In view of the above, we encourage Kenya travelers" to not only venture on the wildlife but expand their horizons to these fields of learning and study and research. There is no end to education and much more will be learnt for example tea growing and processing, coffee growing and processing, tree planting and harvesting, bee keeping and honey processing, silk worm rearing and silk fabric conversion, flower growing and harvesting and so forth.