Dear Krishna Timsina,

In the country I have been working in since the early 1990s, after a period of social and economic transformation and the adaptation of the economy to new market economic conditions, the trend in agriculture was towards the consolidation of fragmented land, i.e. the amalgamation of small, low-area farms of a few hectares into much larger, more productive agricultural enterprises. Small farms of a few hectares produced plant and animal crops mainly only for their own needs, i.e. the needs of the farmer's family. In contrast, large, large-acreage farms are already typically productive farms that use modern farming techniques and technologies and produce specific crops for sale. Large, large-area farms specialise in the production of specific varieties of arable crops or livestock breeding for which there is a demand from agri-processing companies that produce food products or from large shops, wholesale markets for agricultural produce, large-area chain shops, etc. However, trends have been changing in recent years. There is also a return to the fashion for small, low-area, family farms, which are being transformed into agro-tourism farms, including those growing vegetable crops in accordance with the principles of sustainable, pro-environmental, pro-climate organic farming. In the formula of this type of farming, the few animals are mainly reared not for meat production, but as an attraction for agrotourists who visit such sustainable agrotourism farms to relax and enjoy the local cuisine serving dishes within the framework of healthy nutrition on the basis of vegetable crops grown in sustainable organic farming from the nearby garden. As subsidy programmes have been developed in recent years for the development of this kind of sustainable organic farming, farmers are taking advantage of this public financial support and converting their small non-productive farms into sustainable agritourism farms, which can be equipped with their own renewable energy sources based on mini-wind turbines, photovoltaic panels, possibly also geothermal sources and low-carbon biofuels. Such sustainable agri-tourism farms may also be equipped with mini-processing plants producing on a small scale, within the framework of a manufactory, e.g. honey from the farm's own apiary, jams made from fruit from the farm's own orchard, preserved food made from vegetables from the farm's own garden, etc., run according to the formula of sustainable organic farming, i.e. without the use of pesticides and other chemical plant protection products and artificial fertilisers. In such a formula of a new business model, which also takes into account issues of sustainability, farming in harmony with the surrounding nature and climate, sustainable farms and agrotourism developed in this way are able to earn money for themselves, as the demand from agrotourists coming to the countryside from the cities is increasing.

Best regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz