ARABLE farmer Robert Tesseyman joined a new awareness campaign this week to re-forge the link between what the public see in the countryside and what they eat.

He has put special posters up in fields of arable crops alongside public footpaths which detail the crop, its cultivation details, and its end uses.

Similar posters are being erected in arable fields across Yorkshire and the North-East as part of the campaign.

Mr Tesseyman farms near Staveley, Harrogate, and is the NFU County chairman for West Riding. "I have already had walkers tell me how useful the posters are and how they make them feel welcome on the footpaths," he said.

"If we are to get the public on-side in our fight for a more profitable UK agriculture, we need to put some substance to this image by reminding them that absolutely everything they see in the countryside has a commercial purpose as well as, potentially, an aesthetic one."

During the growing season, explanatory posters will start appearing on crops of barley, wheat, potatoes, oilseed rape and sugar beet.

As well as details of crop husbandry and end use, the posters will also highlight the work farmers undertake to help conserve wildlife and the environment.

The NFU's own research has already shown that, while the public's general interest in the UK countryside and rural issues is high, specific knowledge of farming as the mainstay of the rural economy remains patchy.

Over the last six years it has operated several initiatives to address the problem, including farm open days; encouraging farm/school links; developing national curriculum projects for primary and secondary school pupils; organising a national food and farming roadshow; and launching the "Friendly Farm Club" web site for children.