This chapter discusses the concept of agritourism. Agritourism is a style of holiday that is normally spent on farms. The term agritourism is understood differently by tourists and providers of agritourist services. For a tourist, agritourism means familiarizing oneself with agricultural production or recreation in the agricultural environment or it may include an opportunity to help with farming tasks during the visit. However, this definition does not fully render what the term agritourism means to people providing agritourist services. In fact, agritourism is a term introduced by representatives of the supply party representing the interests of farms providing agritourist services. This resulted in a considerable extension of the term to all activities related to providing services for tourists and holidaymakers. Therefore the entities providing agritourist services include in the term agritourism various forms of the accommodation industry. There are no reasons why agritourism and rural tourism should not be distinguished. There are three main features that differentiate agritourism from conventional tourism. The first feature is the possibility to satisfy human need with practical participation in the process of food production, in the life of a rural family and in a rural community. The second characteristic quality of agritourism in relation to conventional tourism is the possibility to satisfy the human cognitive need within farming production or ethnography. The third feature of agritourism is the possibility to satisfy emotional needs, which is the willingness to have direct contact with domestic animals, plant and animal products and the products of processing, and the need to experience the idyllic countryside associated with the atmosphere of rusticity, silence, sounds or even smells of the country and farm. Commonly three agritourism functions are: socio-psychological; economic; spatial and environmental.

This paper provides a stocktake of the status of hill country farming in New Zealand and addresses the challenges which will determine its future state and performance. It arises out of the Hill Country Symposium, held in Rotorua, New Zealand, 12-13 April 2016. This paper surveys people, policy, business and change, farming systems for hill country, soil nutrients and the environment, plants for hill country, animals, animal feeding and productivity, and strategies for achieving sustainable outcomes in the hill country. This paper concludes by identifying approaches to: support current and future hill country farmers and service providers, to effectively and efficiently deal with change; link hill farming businesses to effective value chains and new markets to achieve sufficient and stable profitability; reward farmers for the careful management of natural resources on their farm; ensure that new technologies which improve the efficient use of input resources are developed; and strategies to achieve vibrant rural communities which strengthen hill country farming businesses and their service providers. Keywords: farming systems, hill country, people, policy, productivity, profitability, sustainability

This chapter discusses the services, products, imponderables and agritourist attractions. 'Imponderables' means unmeasurable values, which in particular refer to agritourist space, such as the beauty of the landscape, fresh air or rural architecture. Imponderables, though not a service or product, definitely facilitate the marketing process in agritourism. Agritourism also satisfies human, emotional, aesthetic and social needs, especially the longing for rural serenity, fresh air and landscape undisturbed by architecture. Also agritourism satisfies the human's emotional need for contact with animals. There are nine categories of agritourist products and services: agri-accommodation, agri-food and beverages, primary agritourism, direct sales, agri-recreation, agri-sport, agritainment, agri-therapy and cultural tourism. Within each specific activity category, products and services are distinguished. The following categories of agri-hotel services can be distinguished: farm stay; cottage stay; agri-hotel (motel); self-service beds; agri-camping; special agri-hotel services. Agri-food services are an integral part of agritourism. Four forms of agri-food services can be found: home meals eaten by tourists together with the farmer's family; picnic meals eaten in the fields; canteens, i.e. separate places for tourists, who eat meals without the farmer's family but according to the menu and timetable imposed by the farmer; restaurants run by farmers or food-processing enterprises, which provide meals not only for holidaymakers staying in a specific farm but also for outside guests. Primary agritourism comprises the categories of tourist products and services that are directly related to the production process on a farm. The products and services of primary agritourism include: observation of the production of crops and livestock; observation of food and beverage processing; participation in the production of crops, animals, foods and beverages; educational tours; farm zoo, safari, direct contact with domestic animals or nature on the farm. Due to the fast development of modern wholesale and retail networks, whose goal is to sell mass products to as large a number of consumers as possible, there is a danger that local products manufactured in small amounts will disappear completely, because there will be no effective markets for them. Agritourism provides a market opportunity for such commodities through following forms of direct sales: direct sales of farm products; "pick your own" sales; stands with agricultural produce; farm or enterprise shops. Within agri-sport, the following categories can be distinguished: walks and hikes; horse riding; sports requiring a large space; new-generation area games; hunting; fishing. Some entertainment can be classified as the so-called agritainment. The use of the term agritainment is justified by the fact that such entertainment is only available on farms or in rural areas or possibly in green areas in cities. Three categories may be included in the agritainment group, namely: visiting parks and gardens; agritourist excursions and outings; maize and soya mazes. Currently agritourism offers at least four products and services of agri-therapy, namely: animal-assisted therapy; therapy applying plant and animal specifics: aromatherapy; apitherapy; specific diets; mini-health resorts. The ethnographic products and services offered by the rural community include: historic farms-old farms; historic villages; museums of folk art and agriculture; folk family celebrations and festivals; staying in a village characterized by specific folk character (dialect, art, attire, buildings, etc.). In conclusion, the wide array of products, services and imponderables indicates that agritourism can offer a wide variety of services to clients.

The Government's Growth Agenda is to increase the ratio of exports to GDP from the current 30% to 40% by 2025. New Zealand agribusinesses of all types are being urged to use knowledge and expertise overseas to increase export revenue in order to assist with achieving the agenda. Over the last two decades there have been numerous attempts to "go global" with varied success. There have also been a considerable number of commissioned reports on how companies should proceed. Pastoral farmers rely on their processors and marketers to return an income to their business, but some co-operatives and companies are more successful than others. This paper gives the background for the case studies in the three papers which follow comparing (a) export strategies for dairy companies, (b) increasing suppliers/customers for co-operative companies and (c) taking New Zealand knowledge and expertise in farming systems offshore. Keywords: Export, relationships, supply-chain, value-add

This chapter discusses the economic and social impact of agritourism. The economic and social importance of agritourism can be considered in many aspects, e.g. the macroeconomic aspect, the regional economic aspect and the microeconomic aspect. The primary phenomena that affect the development of agritourism are: (1) low farm income; (2) urbanization; (3) redistribution of urban people's income to agritourist farms and in consequence to all rural people; (4) the state of rural infrastructure and level of urbanization; and (5) policy of local self-government. The most frequently listed reasons for the fall in farmer income in the 1990's include the decline of price relativities, the stagnation of production due to the lack of demand and hence the incomplete use of the production potential of agriculture, the fall in the income from agricultural production; the limitation of subsidizing agriculture from the budget; and the increasing liabilities of farm households, as well as the considerable increase in the unemployment rate, the slower tempo of the overall economy and the deterioration of the economic situation in many areas. In the USA in general, farm and non-farm household incomes are similar within the overall distribution. In Australia in 2001, households that contained at least one person whose main income came from agriculture had a mean income of about 90% of those households where no person was employed in agriculture. In view of the economic situation of people related to agriculture, traditional family farms may be forced to combine income from several sources. The income comes from non-agricultural work, e.g. from running small service, trade or craft enterprises, or it has a non-profit character and comes from other transfers into agriculture, such as pensions and annuities. Rural people are usually poorer than part of the city population. Therefore, redistribution of financial resources from cities to the country and increasing the possibility of rural people generating income are important goals of social policy. Redistributional activity by the state is often initiated to enhance social cohesion.