Farmers as drivers of economic development in Niue through Agritourism

Who would think that farmers would play a key and strategic role in the economic development of a country? Well, they simply do. Farmers are regarded as providers; for people, animals and so forth. They are considered just as important because they are the future. Not many people take notice of this, but being a farmer means “getting your hands dirty”. Farmers are the roots of agriculture and they can be referred to as the best teachers of nature to learn from. Working alongside farmers, not only they have the experience, but they have the knowledge and are dedicated hard-working people. Especially old farmers, each and everyone of them have got their own way of working because those teachings was passed down from generations to generations to get to where they are now.

Tourism on the other hand provides a total different insight of the matter. In Niue, the tourism sector is known to be the most profitable income earned by the country. According to the Niue Statistics Department, the number of tourists travelling to Niue continues to rise over the years. This is when farmers correlate with tourism. Due to the high number of tourists, farmers are continuously supplying crops for hotel owners and restaurants. But because more than 90% of the island’s population practice subsistence farming, it does not affect the demands from the tourism sector as the population of the country is very small (est.1500 people).

See more on CTA's blog: http://blogs.cta.int/2015/06/27/farmers-drivers-development-niue-agritourism/