Horti-tourism; an approach for strengthening farmers’ economy in the post-covid situation

Horti-tourism is one of the newest forms of agro-tourism in Nepal which precisely relates horticultural development with tourism. Different works of literature were thoroughly studied and SWOC analysis was done to reveal the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges of horti-tourism in Nepal. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, horticulture and tourism sectors were severely affected. Commercial horticultural farmers have to bear a great loss due to the imposition of lockdown in the country. Furthermore, there was a reduction of 80% international tourists in 2020, shrinking the country's economic growth rate to 0.2%. In this regard, there is a need for a promising approach that can revive these two sectors rapidly after the Covid-19 pandemic. Horti-tourism can be the sustainable approach to strengthen farmers' economy after the Covid-19 pandemic at an exponential rate. It avoids the problem of complete crop failure, solves market problems, and promotes rural development. Poverty, political instability, lack of infrastructures, and undulated land topography are some major challenges, and high initial investment, the requirement of huge human power, and land area are some of the weaknesses of this concept. For this, different models of horti-tourism should be developed and recommended according to the different geographical regions with the provision of subsidies for its wide adoption.