Agritourism as an "Ambassador" for Agriculture - Expanding Sustainable Agriculture and Farm Diversification Success

Agritourism in the U.S. is gaining traction as a sustainable model for enhancing farm viability and sustainability by creating significant economic, environmental, and socio-cultural benefits for farms and local communities. As consumer demand for farm-to-table connections grows and traditional production economics push producers to explore farm diversification and differentiation, agritourism represents a flexible farm diversification strategy for producers to increase farm revenue by adding value to their products. Further, agritourism on working farms can serve as an “ambassador” for agriculture, through farm-based education, thereby growing a “culture of agricultural literacy” and closing the farm-to-consumer disconnect.

West Virginia (WV) is uniquely positioned to capitalize on agritourism opportunities having the highest family farms/capita in the nation and a traditional tourism product rooted in agrarian heritage and nature-based recreation.  Yet, many WV agritourism operators still lack the holistic business skill set, incorporating both production and hospitality-oriented mindsets, to benefit from this viable opportunity. Further, many counties have very few, if any, trained Agritourism Service Providers (ATSPs) with the appropriate skill set to adequately assist producers in this new venture. There remain many regions where producers are underserved because of a general lack of understanding of and support for agritourism as a crucial farm diversification strategy. 

A 2020 US survey of 1,834 agritourism operators showed that agritourism operators need support to develop agritourism operations in ways that benefit farm viability, community vitality, environmental stewardship, and agricultural literacy. Seventy-six percent (76%) of survey respondents identified business-planning and risk-management as important to a successful operation. Similarly, a 2018 WVU Extension needs-assessment survey for agribusiness owners identified a continuous business-planning and risk-management education program as essential to helping agritourism stakeholders successfully navigate the everchanging landscape of agritourism consumer demand and being able to manage changing local regulations affecting agritourism. WV ag-statistics and dialog with grassroots partners and industry stakeholders also confirm a three-fold increase in agritourism operations from 2010-2020, but underscore that agritourism operators need expanded support in coordinating community agritourism efforts to help market "localness"/"regional identity", and manage financial and geographic risks.

This project will provide whole-farm planning and risk-management training and support to 25 agritourism service providers working with agritourism operations in WV, to empower them to help producers implement sustainable agritourism diversification strategies to complement viable agricultural operations, earn a livable wage, and address the opportunities and challenges of farming in the 21st century. To this end, this project will develop a “Holistic Agritourism Training Toolbox”, provide ATSPs professional development, and provide mentoring, community ‘clustering’ partnerships and networking opportunities to support these ATSPs who collectively serve 100+ agritourism operators. Our efforts will help WV agritourism operators improve the viability and sustainability of their operations, and the development of the local agritourism sector through comprehensively addressing the following crucial interlinked issues - strengthening rural agribusiness productivity and creativity, building agribusiness and tourism entrepreneurial partnerships, promoting sustainable agriculture and tourism, and encouraging agribusiness and rural community.

This project expands WVUES' legacy of growing ‘visitor-ready’ operations to generate income from agritourism, bolster agricultural sales, diversify product lines and markets, and allow customer feedback, which helps grow profitable agritourism operators and viable rural communities, and keep dollars circulating in our local economies. The expanded education and networking opportunities will help build strategic agritourism partnerships, harness community synergies and foster linked prosperity. The formation of the WV Agritourism Association will strengthen the stakeholder network in advocating for a supportive ecosystem for long-term sustainability and viability of the agritourism sector. Moreover, a skilled cadre of diverse agritourism service providers will provide long-term targeted local support for agritourism operators (producers, processors, landowners) and related businesses in their local communities as they confront the complex risks related to diversifying into agritourism.

Moreover, this project expands the spectrum of traditional agritourism topics by putting into practice the transformative educational framework of “the agritourism entrepreneurial ecosystem/value-chain”, a professional development methodology for ATSPs based on these core principles: quadruple-bottom-line objectives (environmental, economic, cultural, and socio-economic); participatory learning and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing; cross-cultural and cross-constituent dialog; value-chain development in sustainable agriculture and food systems; and network collaboration with a wider spectrum of agritourism "value-chain" stakeholders.  

This project will specifically address DEIJ issues in agritourism from both the demand (public-facing or consumer) side and the supply (producer/agritourism operators and ATSPs) side by building and strengthening relationships with BIPOC communities. We will work to increase the capacity of ATSPs to recognize and meet the needs of BIPOC and other underserved communities/agritourism operators in developing viable and sustainable agritourism initiatives including BIPOC (USDA socially disadvantaged), women, beginning farmers, veterans, and limited resource farmers. Likewise, we will increase the capacity of ATSPs to recognize and help agritourism operators respond to the needs of BIPOC visitors participating in agritourism activities within WV. 

Project Team

Doolarie Singh-Knights, WVUES - Project Leader (Role: Coordinate the overall project; lead workshop design and development; recruit appropriate presenters and collaborators; market the program to appropriate audiences; build and support online project activities; contribute to educational training programs; and lead project evaluation efforts).

Evan Wilson, WVUES - Project Team Member (Role: Assist with overall coordination of the 3-year project; assist with workshop design and development; assist with curriculum development for all modules, help recruit appropriate presenters and collaborators; market the program to appropriate audiences; help build and support online project activities; contribute to educational training programs; lead website efforts and social media projects and assist with project evaluation efforts).

Candace DeLong, WVUES - Project Team Member (Role: Assist with overall coordination of the 3-year project; assist with workshop design and development; assist with curriculum development for all modules, help recruit appropriate presenters and collaborators; market the program to appropriate audiences; help build and support online project activities; contribute to educational training programs; lead website efforts and social media projects and assist with project evaluation efforts).

Maggie Parsons, WV Department of Agriculture - Project Team Member (Role: Will help with state and federal agency collaboration; contribute to educational training programs; and market the program to appropriate audiences to help establish project´s credibility and improve attendance).

Liz Riffle, Riffle Farms, Agritourism Operator - Project Team Member (Role: Will contribute to educational training programs [partnerships and alliances, agritourism clusters best practices]; and market the program to appropriate audiences to help establish project´s credibility and improve attendance among ASPs). 

Jennifer Gilkerson, Sunset Berry Farms, Agritourism Operator - Project Team Member. (Role: Will contribute to educational training programs [innovative marketing strategies, managing customer hospitality]; and market the program to appropriate audiences to help establish project´s credibility and improve attendance among ASPs).  

Cara Rose, Pocohontas County Convention and Visitors Bureau - Project Team Member. (Role: Will assist with project planning and implementation; contribute to educational training programs [Innovative Marketing Strategies, Hospitality Training and Event Management, Building Regional Identify and Localness, Storytelling, Strategic Planning, Building Community Partnerships]; and market the program to appropriate audiences to help establish project´s credibility and improve attendance).

Michelle Moure-Reeves, Hardy County Convention and Visitors Bureau - Project Team Member. (Role: Will assist with project planning and implementation; contribute to educational training programs [Innovative Marketing Strategies, Hospitality Training and Event Management, Building Regional Identify and Localness, Storytelling, Strategic Planning, Building Community Partnerships]; and market the program to appropriate audiences to help establish project´s credibility and improve attendance).