📄 Abstract
Tea-garden households in the Dooars region of West Bengal, India, remain heavily dependent on tea-plucking wages, while limited access to productive agricultural enterprises constrains opportunities for livelihood diversification. This study examines whether an integrated agricultural livelihood diversification model combining agritourism, tea-tourism experiences, apiculture, community-based homestays, skills development, and productive utilization of tea-processing residues can strengthen household economic resilience and reduce dependence on tea-wage employment. A quasi-experimental longitudinal design is employed across eight intervention and four matched comparison villages in the Dooars region of Jalpaiguri district. Household data are collected at baseline, midline, and endline to measure changes in household income, employment, agricultural and allied-enterprise participation, livelihood diversification, and dependence on tea-wage income and forest resources. A Difference-in-Differences (DiD) framework is used to estimate intervention-associated changes between treatment and comparison villages, while enterprise-level unit-economic analysis assesses the financial viability of apiculture, homestays, agritourism activities, and tea-residue-based value addition. The study conceptualizes agritourism as a mechanism for strengthening agricultural value chains by connecting tea landscapes, local agricultural products, farm-based experiences, accommodation and rural entrepreneurship. The integrated model is expected to generate additional income and employment, increase participation in diversified agricultural and allied enterprises, strengthen local skills, and promote circular utilization of tea-processing residues. The study contributes empirical evidence on how agritourism and complementary agricultural enterprises can support livelihood diversification among tea-garden communities and provides a potentially scalable framework for other tea-growing regions of India and the Eastern Himalaya.
🏷️ Keywords
📚 How to Cite:
Dr.Vikramaditya Malladeb, Dr.Kanchan Bhowmik , AGRICULTURAL LIVELIHOOD DIVERSIFICATION THROUGH AGRITOURISM AND RURAL ENTERPRISES: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF TEA-GARDEN HOUSEHOLDS IN THE DOOARS, WEST BENGAL, INDIA , Volume 14 , Issue 8, August 2026, EPRA International Journal of Agriculture and Rural Economic Research (ARER) , Pages: 47 - 56 , DOI: https://doi.org/10.36713/epra31416