THIS is the Year of Food and Drink 2015, a celebration of Scotland's natural larder and unique dining choices, and VisitScotland has created a new guide to help tourists find and enjoy our culinary delights.

With figures revealing that almost half of people (49 per cent) visiting Scotland want to try local food, a new ebook by VisitScotland is hoping to encourage visitors to undertake a culinary tour of the country.

"A taste of Scotland's Foodie Trails" became available last month on visitscotland.com and combines details of Scotland's food trails with information about relevant local businesses and facts about each product.

As well as highlighting places to experience great Scottish food, the ebook also offers visitors a taste of what else to do in each area.

Recent figures estimated Scotland's food and drink tourism industry is worth £2.5m per day to the economy, with the food and drink industry as a whole worth almost £14bn a year.

Research shows that food is an integral part of the tourism experience and sampling traditional dishes and local produce is the second top activity by visitors to Scotland.

Farmers should be paying attention and to promote a better understanding of how Scottish food is produced, as well as tapping into the potential for farm-tourism to generate additional income streams.

Scotland has a fantastic opportunity to capitalise on the agri-tourism movement that is sweeping the globe. In Italy, holidaymakers staying on 20,000 Italian farms, 55 per cent from the domestic market, contribute £1,2bn to agri-tourism businesses.

On-farm holidays can be much more than a good way to experience farm life, to have the freedom to explore our countryside, or simply to eat wholesome fresh food - elsewhere in the world, farmers are combining farm holidays with a range of exciting activities and with just enjoying nature.

A report commissioned by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) back in 2010 revealed that nature-based tourism was worth at least £1.4bn to the Scottish economy and supports the equivalent of 39,000 full-time jobs.

Wildlife tourism brings in £127m and is the main driver behind more than one million trips to Scotland each year. Activities include bird watching, guided walks and practical conservation holidays. Adventure activities, such as mountain biking, canoeing and kayaking, are worth £178m.

Carrying out these kinds of studies is very complex, particularly for activities such as walking and enjoying the landscape, but further research has estimated that walking and landscape could be worth at least £900m between them.

So Scotland's beautiful, natural environment is a basis for big business.

Of course, much of Scotland's countryside is man-made. Forests were felled in medieval times, while land has been enclosed and improved by drainage, or re-planted with forestry. Elsewhere, heather moor-land is carefully managed for grouse shooting. Everywhere you look, farmers and landowners are constantly changing the appearance of Scotland's landscape for various reasons - most of them good and driven by the perceived best use of land at the time.

More recently, time, money and effort have created enhanced, species-rich habitats for the conservation of a diversity of wildlife.

A range of grants and subsidy payments from both the EU and Government have helped stimulate interest in such works.

Woodland and hedges have been planted, livestock removed from hill and moorland, and water habitats and water margins have been enhanced and protected - among other things, protecting juvenile fish from predators.

Such works are of particular interest to anglers. The last comprehensive study conducted by the Scottish Government estimated that angling was worth about £113m to the Scottish economy.

That research also found that the sport supported 2800 jobs north of the border and generated almost £50m in wages and self-employment income.

Perhaps more farmers should embrace the opportunities presented to them by agri-tourism - and use it as a way of promoting Scottish food.