The Federal Agriculture Minister, Barnaby Joyce, has put Ord Stage 3 at the top of a list of priority water infrastructure projects submitted to the prime minister.

He's also lobbying for the establishment of more dams and water for agriculture across northern Australia.

The Ord project would see the expansion of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme from WA into the Northern Territory.

There are about 15,000 hectares of land on the Northern Territory side of the Ord that have been earmarked for development for a number of years, provided Traditional Owners approve.

Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce says he has considered up to 100 water-related projects in northern Australia, but the Ord is a priority.

“I’m telling you what I’ve only told the prime minister, I’ve given more away then I should, but Ord Stage 3 is the biggest one for the Northern Territory," he said.

“As chairman of dams committee for the northern Australia, I have submitted to the Prime Minister dams for northern Australia.

“To be honest, in the NT it really is an extension of the Ord, stage 3, which actually pushes back into the Northern Territory.

“Around Katherine you're looking more at aquifers and making sure the science is right, and if there’s further work we can do into expanding agriculture there. Listen Duration: 6 minutes 6 seconds 6 m Listen Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. The Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has a priority list for water infrastructure projects. ( Marty McCarthy ) Download 2.8 MB

“Northern Queensland includes Hell's Gate and the Burdekin Dam – these are also parts of the submissions."

But Minister Joyce says he wants proof that sites marked for agriculture development in the north have the potential to grow produce that buyers actually want.

"There’s no point having a dam unless the offload agreement, that is the capacity to produce a product that people want to buy, is apparent," he said.

Mr Joyce says his priority for northern Australia is for it to become a high quality producing area, not a high quantity producing one.

"Our agriculture production for the globe is 1 per cent. We feed about 60 million people, but if we double that to 120 million, we couldn’t even feed half of Indonesia.

"So let's stop saying we’ll feed the whole of China, Vietnam and the Philippines and Japan and Indonesia and everywhere else in between because we also have to feed ourselves.

"We’ll produce a quality product into a premium part of the market.

"It has to be quality. If you don’t produce quality, you're going to get paid the price for quantity.

"You can go into any supermarket in the world. In the end, if you want quantity, you’ll get it and you’ll get it cheap, and it’s nasty."