Desy Ekaputri SEKOLAH TINGGI PARIWISATA NUSA-DUA, BALI (BALI TOURISM INSTITUTE) email : daisy.putri@yahoo.com
Harvest Life Agro (Plantation Agro-Tourism) Indonesia is an archipelago country that has abundant natural resources and has the second largest biodiversity in the world. Due to the abundance of natural resources, Indonesia became one of the potential and growing tourist destinations. However, these natural resources have not managed and empowered optimally by the communities which caused by the lack of human consciousness about the important of environment. One of the practices of tourism that has been implemented to utilize these resources and has the potential to be further developed is agrotourism. Agro-tourism is one of the potential alternatives to be developed in the village or city, subsequently restrictions on agro-tourism stated that agro-tourism is a type of tourism which is specially made agriculture also plantation as an attraction for tourists. Based on its development, there are seven types of agro-tourism, those seven types of agro-tourism are plantation agrotourism, flowers and fruits agro-tourism, food crops agro-tourism, farm agro-tourism, fisheries agro-tourism, agricultural management agro-tourism (industry agro-tourism), and forestry agrotourism. This essay will further discuss on plantation agro-tourism as a potential sustainable tourism to be further developed. There are two elements to look for in the plantation agro-tourism, those two elements are plantation cultivation and the arrangement of the gardens. Plantation cultivation generally include land management activities, spreading plant seeds, plant maintenance, as well as harvest the plants from the agricultural results. On the arrangement of the
agro-tourism gardens, plantation setup not only intended for the convenience of visitors, but will also be paying attention to in terms of sustainability, facet arrangement of zoning and the placement of facilities which needed by the visitors as well as patterns of group types of plants. However, although Indonesia has a very rich and biodiversity natural resources which is the most important and potential resource for human survival and livelihoods in tourism. These natural resources have not managed and empowered optimally. The abundant of natural resources, growth of tourism industry, and human growth in Indonesia became a reason for communities to excessively exploit the natural resources without considering the impact towards our lovely earth and our environment which leading into the imbalance of nature, interruption also negative impact on natural and human resources. Furthermore, the communities realized that Indonesia has abundant natural resources also the communities has been accustomed to use natural resources without considering and find out the impact that will be incurred from the use of these natural resources, also not all of the communities are open minded to accept the growth of tourism, agrotourism and sustainable tourism in their environment, then agro-tourism which offered to the tourist generally using the same concept on their operational, such as harvesting fruits, as well as not all of the communities has an awareness to maintain the sustainability of the environment, so, it is a challenge to implementing agro-tourism in all regions of Indonesia. To face the challenges that exist, Harvest Life agro will held a monthly seminar about the importance of maintaining the existing natural resources, and the importance of sustainable tourism will be programme for the public. On its operational, Harvest Life Agro will offer Tree Day Harvest Life, Save Ant Harvest Life, and Harvest Life Special Edition.
Tree Day Harvest Life will give an extraordinary experience for the clients where the clients will stay and life together with the farmer s family or in our camping ground for three days, on these three days, the clients will do land management activities, spreading plant seeds, as well as harvest the plants from the agricultural results but to bring the plants from the agricultural results home, the clients have to buy it. Save Ant Harvest Life will give a super extraordinary experience for the clients where the clients will stay and life together with two different farmer s family, three days living with farmer s family A, and the next four until seven days living with farmer s family B or in our camping ground, then the clients will do land management activities, spreading plant seeds, plant maintenance, as well as harvest the plants from the agricultural results an the clients can bring the plants from the agricultural results home without buy it anymore. Harvest Life Special Edition will give a super duper extraordinary experience for the clients where the clients does not need to stay and life together with the farmers but the clients can choose freely whether they want to do the harvest activity for three days nor seven days, Furthermore, the clients will cultivate the crops that can be consumed by the clients and may be sold by the farmers. To realize those plantation agro-tourism namely Harvest Life Agro, it will need a view cost around twenty million Indonesian rupiah for building facilities such as camping ground, and cultivate machine, ten million Indonesian rupiah for promotion and five million Indonesian rupiah for the operational such as plants seeds, plants fertilizer, and everything that the farmers need to grow their farm. However there are several barriers to realize this plantation agro-tourism namely
Harvest Life Agro, the barriers are there are some communities that are hardly accept tourism, agro-tourism and plantation agro-tourism which will be build on their village. To solve those barriers, Harvest Life Agro will share 50% of the profit for the community, also Harvest Life Agro will use 20% of the profit to provide a scholarship for the farmer s kids which agree to be our teams so the kids can learn about the important of sustainable environment, and can share the education that has been reached to the others so everyone know about the important of sustainable tourism.