The sector remains an economic mainstay and primary national employer. As manufacturing and industrial activities have expanded, agriculture’s position as the primary economic engine has been eroded in recent years, although it remains a major strength, with high-value tea, rubber and coconut and spice production contributing significantly to export earnings. This is despite falling global commodities prices and reduced production hitting export crops in recent years. Favorable weather conditions have afforded agricultural production a considerable amount of diversification in Sri Lanka. Although tea production remains the greatest agricultural strength, accounting for 13% of total exports in 2015, the country is also the world’s leading exporter of cinnamon and coconut fiber, while its abundance of natural rubber allowed rubber export earnings to peak at over $1bn in 2011. The sector also produces high-quality horticultural exports, notably tropical fruits and fresh-cut flowers. Its two largest cereal crops – rice and maize – meet the bulk of domestic demand, but Sri Lanka is not food self-sufficient, and relies on imports of wheat, rice and maize to meet domestic demand Figure 1.1 Evidence from the production and price fluctuations during last three to four decades in both conventional agriculture sector with intensive production of rice, vegetables and other subsistence crops and plantation agriculture sector with intensive production of tea, rubber, coconut, coffee, etc in Sri Lanka shows that they are highly vulnerable to external factors such as internal and international politics, climate change and whether pattern changes, market and trade crumples, etc.

Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals – Journey to 2030 serves as a guide to how the tourism sector can contribute towards the implementation and achievement of the 17 SDGs. It aims to inspire governments, policymakers and tourism companies to incorporate relevant aspects of the SDGs into policy and financing frameworks as well as business operations and investments. The publication’s recommendations are based on an analysis of 64 countries’ Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) on the SDGs – submitted to the United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in 2016 and 2017 – as well as eight Mainstreaming, Acceleration and Policy Support (MAPS) country roadmaps and the CSR activities of 60 global tourism companies.

Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals – Journey to 2030 serves as a guide to how the tourism sector can contribute towards the implementation and achievement of the 17 SDGs. It aims to inspire governments, policymakers and tourism companies to incorporate relevant aspects of the SDGs into policy and financing frameworks as well as business operations and investments. The publication’s recommendations are based on an analysis of 64 countries’ Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) on the SDGs – submitted to the United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in 2016 and 2017 – as well as eight Mainstreaming, Acceleration and Policy Support (MAPS) country roadmaps and the CSR activities of 60 global tourism companies.

The organic vegetable group in Houyoun village, Xay district, Oudomxay province is a member of the Lao Farmer Network (LFN) since 2016. The group has about 300 members in the village producing organic vegetables since 2015, which they sell to local market in Xay town. Besides growing vegetable, they also produce some grapes.

During the visit of the LFN secretariat in January 2017, the group expressed their interest to learn about processing wine and adding value to their organic vegetable garden. The idea of setting up agro-tourism also came out. However, they don’t have a clear ideas on how to do it or what are steps toward.

Because of these reasons, LFN organized a study visit for 10 Khmou farmers (5 women, 5 youth) from the Houyoun organic vegetable group to visit an agro-tourism site, the Vangvieng organic farm in Vientiane province, on 14-15 February 2017.

Agrotourism is widely advocated as a useful strategy to develop mountain agriculture and improve farmers’ income and quality of life. However, the relationship between agriculture and tourism is complex, and the extent to which tourism benefits farmers remains uncertain. This paper examines the relationship between agriculture and tourism and assesses to what extent agrotourism benefits farmers in Phu Ruea district, a popular tourist destination in the mountains of northeast Thailand. The Phu Ruea agrotourism system generated gross income for the district of almost US$ 16 million in 2014. About 80% of this income came from sales from specialty-crop farms and of tourism services operated by the households of local farms. The agrotourism system also created many employment opportunities for local people. There were 1500 people directly involved in the system, 90% of whom were farmers or members of farm households. Thus, there is no doubt that many local farmers derive significant benefits from their involvement in the agrotourism system. Although the Phu Ruea agrotourism system can be seen as a successful strategy for developing mountain agriculture, agrotourism is not a magic strategy to solve all the problems of rural development in the mountains. Only some localities are attractive to tourists, and only some farmers have the knowledge, skills, and resources to take advantage of the opportunities offered by tourism.