The Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) has announced the results of the National Industrial Tourism Accelerator Programme. EkoNiva farm tour project in Kaluga oblast has received an award for the best interactive content. EkoNiva farm tour was rated highly by a board of experts consisting of ASI specialists, representatives of the government authorities and the business community. In total, more than 350 enterprises from 53 regions of Russia took part in the competition.

The numbers speak for themselves: over 100,000 guests, including school pupils and agricultural university students, groups of tourists and business partners of EkoNiva Group, have visited the dairies in Voronezh and Kaluga oblasts since 2013.

At the dairy, visitors can see with their own eyes all the stages of the top-grade milk production from in-house fodder preparation to cow milking in the rotary parlour. To immerse themselves into the dairy farm atmosphere, the attendees can make fodder for the cows and even bottle-feed the calves.

‘Our target audience is mainly children and teenagers. Participation in the EkoNiva farm tour programme enables our young visitors to develop a positive image of agriculture as a booming industry. And maybe in the future, when it comes to choosing their own career, this experience will encourage them to opt for a job in the agriculture’, points out Yekaterina Bartseva, EkoNiva-Food Tour Project Manager.

EkoNiva is constantly improving the tour programme, complementing it with various workshops, interactive tasks for children and thematic festivals. Plans are underway to launch additional tour projects on one of the farms in Moscow oblast and at the cheese plant in Voronezh oblast.