Bundaberg canefarmers are calling on the Queensland Government to put an urgent hold on an extension of reef regulations due to go before Parliament this week, arguing more research should be done into growers' actual impact on the Great Barrier Reef.

Mark Pressler is a fourth-generation cane farmer in Bundaberg who has voluntarily changed his farming practices to minimise run-off and reduce the environmental impact, but he believes farmers are being unfairly blamed for the reef's condition.

"If we were really wrecking the reef, wouldn't the reef be wrecked by now?" he said.

"We've made changes in the last 10 to 20 years, but my ancestors were here before that and the reef is still there."

Under the proposed legislation, growers will be required to undertake mandatory soil testing, and keep records of the fertilisers, chemicals and soil conditioners they use.

Mr Pressler said he already did that, but believed it shouldn't be made a mandatory extra cost for an industry already struggling with drought, electricity charges and the declining price of sugar.

"It's all just getting too hard, a lot of the growers are at retirement age now. It just makes it another nail in the coffin and makes it easier to sell or walk away," he said.

Canefarmer Mark Pressler and his brother Brian want an urgent stop to the reef regulations. ( ABC Wide Bay: Johanna Marie )

Matt Leighton from Bundaberg Canegrowers said one of the concerns with the legislation was that the director-general of a department in Brisbane could decide how much fertiliser a canefarmer, or a small crop grower, could apply to their crop.

"It's hard to think that someone who may never have stepped onto a cane farm or a farm, or doesn't have an agronomic background, is telling people who live and breathe and work on their farms … what they need to do on their farms," he said.

It is also the first time reef regulations will be imposed on the state's multi-billion-dollar horticulture industry.

"Tomatoes, sweet potatoes, avocados, macadamias, chillies, all those crops that are grown here in Bundaberg will be impacted by this as well," Mr Leighton said.

Chillies are just one of the crops that canegrowers say will be affected by the laws. ( ABC News: Jonathan Hair )

Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch said only 11 per cent of cane farms across the state had taken up voluntary best practice accreditation, and this legislation would hold them accountable.

She said they would have access to funding assistance to help adopt the measures, and a three-year grace period.

"Once the legislation is passed … [it] won't apply to that Burnett area for the first three years, to give that opportunity to farmers to transition to best management practice."

Canegrowers, however, are questioning the science behind the legislation and whether run-off from farms in Bundaberg and Maryborough is having a negative impact.

"The East Australian current that Nemo's dad took to get to Sydney to find Nemo, that actually flows past those islands," Mr Leighton said.

"Our tourism operators comment that the southern part of the Great Barrier Reef is better down here than it is off Cairns.

Coral growing at Barolin Rocks off Bundaberg's coast. ( Supplied: Tracy Olive )

"It is hard to say that people who are so far away from parts of the reef, that we actually are having a large impact.

"We might be having some but whether we are having a significant impact … that's what the debate and our argument for putting a hold on the regulations is."

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Ms Enoch said the investigation work had already been done by the Great Barrier Reef Water Science Taskforce, which recommended the extension.

"When you look at the science, it's pretty clear that we need to move much, much more quickly to give the Great Barrier Reef the best possible chance to survive a change in climate."

The reef regulations are due to go before Parliament on Tuesday.