LOCAL farmers will be able to call in at the NFU Food and Farming Roadshow when it visits the county as part of its eighth annual tour of the country.

Roadshow presenter Johnny Ball started the ball rolling in Stratford-upon-Avon last month and since then they have visited a variety of venues including town centres, agricultural shows and tourist attractions.

Johnny says that this year's theme is to demonstrate how much farming matters to everyone.

"What we are aiming to demonstrate is how important farming is to all of us," says the Lancashire farmer.

"We are portraying the role that farmers play in looking after the countryside - something they have been doing for generations - caring for the landscape that makes our countryside so beautiful.

"A new role for farmers will be providing sources of energy in the form of biofuels and biomass to help reduce the impact of climate change. As the supplies and cost of fossil fuels rise, there will be an increasing need to produce more sustainable forms of fuel and this is where farmers can play a huge role.

"In Britain, farmers produce more than two-thirds of all our food and look after at least three-quarters of the total land area.

"Farming is one of the mainstays of the rural economy - not just because of all the food the industry produces, but because our beautiful countryside is the backdrop for our multi-million pound tourist industry."

The roadshow has been immensely popular with both adults and children, with a variety of children focused activities, and this month it makes appearances at Worcester's Angel Place and Hatton Country World, before ending at the Town and Country Festival, Stoneleigh.