Agro-tourism helps one Swiss farm thrive

The changing face of Swiss agriculture Keystone

The fields of the Magdino plain in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino have been cultivated for 200 years. And the family of Ulrico Feitknecht has run the 100-hectare Masseria Ramello farm, in the village of Cadenazzo, for most of the century.

Ulrico Feitknecht told swissinfo that the farm he runs with his wife Rose produces pigs, seed maize, soybeans, cereals and potatoes and 1,800 litres of milk each day from their dairy herd.

However, farmers in Switzerland have suffered from lower agricultural prices over the past few years, encouraging more and more farmers to diversify their sources of income.

A working farm

At the Feitknecht’s farm this has meant moving into the agricultural tourism market, changing the farm into what’s known as an ‘agriturismo’. But Ulrico Feitknecht assured swissinfo that the agriturismo does not dominate Masseria Ramello, which remains a working farm, primarily.

“That’s the main diference between an agriturismo in Italy and one here in Switzerland, our main business activity is still farming and the agriturismo is an additional offer we have on the farm,” Feitknecht explained.

Even before the Feitknechts added the agriturismo business to the farm, located between Belinzona and Locarno, it was attracting some 2,000 visitors per year.

School on the farm

“We slowly started to realise that we could offer these people more than just a tour on the farm, so five years ago we started off with our ‘lunch on the farm’ service,” added Feitknecht. “Then three years ago we began ‘holidays on the farm’, where we rent out flats to tourists, and then ‘school on the farm’ started more recently where we let students come to the farm and really get involved in things rather than just visit.”

The Feitknecht’s beautiful 200-year old farmhouse also hosts groups of business executives. With a large conference room built above one of the barns, the farm can host large business seminars and conferences, though the experience is different from the usual.

“The first thing we tell them is not to come by car, they leave that at the railway station, then they walk down the plain to the farm,” explained Feitknecht. “They leave their cell phones in the car and at the end of the day they find they’ve managed to spend a day without the car and a cell phone and when you spend a day without them you find that it’s absolutely marvellous.”

Continued consolidation

Swiss farming is characterised by smaller farms than those normally found in the rest of Europe. However, as with other European countries the economic realities of running a small farm are forcing continued consolidation in the agricultural sector.

Feitknecht explained that although diversification into the agriturismo business helps, it is by no means a salvation.

“In recent years the prices in agriculture dropped quite dramatically and we are looking at new alternatives, but we are quite sure that the agriturismo is not going to solve all our problems. It is an additional offer…but it is also additional work for myself and my wife and we can’t go on having the farm operating at full speed and having a full agriturimo as well.”

Feitknecht does receive help in promoting the agriturismo side of his business from Swiss Tourism, but help also comes from the government for the agricultural side of the business.

Quality of life

“We try to be innovative and we try to apply all the techniques used in other European countries. We produce crops, but we also produce environment and quality of life and the Swiss government and society pays us for that.”

In fact the role of farmers in Switzerland is changing as economic conditions make traditional farms less economically viable.

“We have to become open to more of the needs of society. We must realise that if we have a day off on Monday we can keep the farm open on Sunday, as that’s when the public can visit the farm. It’s good for marketing our products and having people here on the farm promotes those products and what we do.”

Certainly the equation of running a successful farm in Switzerland is changing and the balancing act performed by farmers is increasingly complex. And one thing is sure that agriturismo is becoming an ever more important part of that equation.

by Tom O’Brien