Citation: Peroff, D.M.; Morais, D.B.; Sills, E. The Role of Agritourism Microentrepreneurship and Collective Action in Shaping Stewardship of Farmlands. Sustainability 2022, 14, 8116. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14138116 Academic Editor: Gema Cárdenas Received: 14 April 2022 Accepted: 28 June 2022 Published: 2 July 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Article The Role of Agritourism Microentrepreneurship and Collective Action in Shaping Stewardship of Farmlands Deidre M. Peroff 1, * , Duarte B. Morais 2 and Erin Sills 3 1 Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, School of Freshwater Sciences, University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, Milwaukee, WI 53204, USA 2 Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA; dbmorais@ncsu.edu 3 Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA; erin_sills@ncsu.edu * Correspondence: dmperoff@aqua.wisc.edu Abstract: Agritourism has been promoted primarily as a way to mitigate economic challenges faced by small-scale family farmers, but it may also foster land stewardship and promote agricultural liter- acy. There has been very little research on these relationships. We employed a primarily qualitative approach to assess how farmers’ involvement in agritourism microentrepreneurship shapes their stewardship of small-scale farmlands in southeastern North Carolina. Furthermore, we examined how farmers’ involvement in social structures, summarized in measures of collective action, sup- ported or hindered this relationship. We find that reasons for participation in agritourism differed greatly between conventional farmers and alternative farmers. While both groups expressed a desire to reduce agricultural illiteracy among the public through agritourism, conventional farmers were motivated primarily by sociocultural reasons (e.g., community and youth development) while alter- native farmers wanted to educate visitors about land stewardship and environmentally sustainable food production. Involvement in agritourism microentrepreneurship did not directly influence land stewardship by either group of farmers. Alternative farmers expressed that collective action was important in helping them promote land stewardship, but they felt restricted by sociocultural and geographic barriers preventing them from developing trust within their community. Conversely, conventional farmers reported deeper cultural roots in the community. Thus, participation in agri- tourism does not have a generalizable impact on farmers’ land stewardship; instead, agritourism becomes a stage through which farmers try to demonstrate their pre-existing land ethics. Keywords: agricultural literacy; ecoliteracy; self-determination; food; co-management 1. Introduction Agritourism, which is broadly characterized as tourism related activities on working farms where “agricultural activities are practiced” [1], is promoted as a way to sustain farm livelihoods. In particular, agritourism can contribute to the diversification of fam- ily farms [2–4]. Agritourism has also been found to affect cultural heritage and social identity [3], to foster recreational benefits to individuals and communities through multi- functionality [5], and to promote socio-economic, cultural, and environmental sustainability such as keeping farms in the family and practicing integrated pest management [6]. In this study, we examine the motivations of small-scale farmers for becoming involved in agri- tourism, the relationship between agritourism microentrepreneurship and stewardship of working agricultural lands, and how collective processes (e.g., involvement in cooperatives) facilitate this relationship. We find that the motivations and forms of participation in agritourism vary widely across different types of agricultural producers. Agritourism includes a wide diversity of activities, including educational or interpretive, volunteer tourism or paid visits, or Sustainability 2022, 14, 8116. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14138116 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability