The NFF is tomorrow meeting with Climate Change Minister Penny Wong and Agriculture Minister Tony Burke in Canberra and will tell the pair that they need to start "thinking outside the box".

"With politicians debating the pros and cons of emissions trading versus carbon taxes, greenhouse targets and espousing their respective green credentials, one thing they do agree on is that the proposed CPRS simply won't work for agriculture," NFF President David Crombie said.

Nationals Leader Warren Truss agrees, arguing that while an emissions trading scheme could be "part of an overall response", other innovative technologies must also be used to minimise carbon emissions and minimise the damage to the national economy.

"Virtually everybody in the National Party has very serious reservations about Labor’s emissions trading scheme," Mr Truss said.

"It will cost jobs; it will move industries from Australia overseas where they will emit much more CO2 gases than what happens in Australia.

"It is flawed in its design and Labor should be bold enough to reject it now, go back to the drawing board and put together a more comprehensive plan to address these issues."

Among the alternative solutions being promoted, the Coalition is advocating the adoption of biochar as a means of increasing farm productivity while also sequestering carbon in the soil.

And Mr Crombie said greater investment research and development is needed to quantify carbon capture and storage in soils, crops and pastures.

"New research released this week by the Australian Farm Institute, reveals Australia’s agricultural exports – worth $30 billion a year to our national economy – will cop a hiding in an environment where most of our international competitors will not impose an equivalent emission scheme," Mr Crombie said.

"The report quantifies the massive costs Australian agriculture will bear under the CPRS, reducing the value of Australian agricultural production by $2.4 billion a year by 2020, and $10.9 billion a year by 2030.

"That's an economic cost that will severely hit the 315,000 direct employees on Australian farms, not to mention the flow on impact to the 1.6 million jobs across the rest of economy that hinge on agricultural production.

"If the Government is serious about carbon reduction and capture strategies, as opposed to just putting in place an emissions trading scheme, then all workable options must be on the table."