Nearly 600 Canberra public servants will be ordered to pack their bags and move to towns in rural NSW and Tasmania, under a under a federal government decentralisation plan.

Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has ordered the bosses of three rural research and development corporations – Grains, Rural Industries and Fisheries – to keep the proposals secret from their workforces.

Mum's the word: Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce. Credit:Andrew Taylor

The Minister also wants The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority to move its 178 staff 750 kilometres north from Canberra to Armidale, in Mr Joyce's New England electorate.

He has asked the agencies for fully costed plans for the moves and if word of the plans leaked out, bosses were to assure staff that they should be reassured that no decision would be made without consultation.