There are renewed calls for an overhaul of farm worker visas, with a trial aimed at getting unemployed people into agriculture attracting lacklustre support.

Key points: A trial offering incentives to unemployed people who work on farms has attracted just 14 people

A trial offering incentives to unemployed people who work on farms has attracted just 14 people The trial was adopted in return for the Nick Xenophon Team's support for backpacker tax changes last year

The trial was adopted in return for the Nick Xenophon Team's support for backpacker tax changes last year The National Farmers' Federation instead wants a new visa program for overseas visitors

Just 14 people have so far signed up to a new Federal Government program that allows unemployed people to earn an income and still receive their full welfare payment.

The federal Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) was the architect of the trial, which the Government adopted in return for the crossbenchers supporting last year's backpacker tax changes.

Lobby group the National Farmers' Federation (NFF) has raised doubts the program will solve worker shortfalls, which it said would again be highlighted during the summer fruit harvest.

"To say you just need to pay people more to induce them to come into the industry is, in our view, simplistic," NFF workplace relations general manager Ben Rogers said.

Mr Rogers said a radical solution was needed, and the NFF wanted an entirely new visa designed specifically for overseas visitors who worked on farms.

He said the current visas farmers used only offered a short-term solution, and a more reliable, long-term workforce was needed.

"Seasonal work would be a focus, the sort of stuff that is being covered off by the backpacker visa program, the working holiday visa program, those sorts of things," Mr Rogers said.

"But it would be a broad approach to comprehensively address that very significant labour need within the sector."

Australians 'unwilling to pick crops'

Southern Queensland stone fruit grower and Summerfruit Australia president Andrew Findlay said workers were farmers' biggest cost.

"There will be many farms that employ 50, 100 people," he said.

"So you go from having maybe 10 permanent [staff] on a larger operation to very, very suddenly having to increase staff numbers rapidly."

Farmers need to increase worker numbers quickly when the picking season starts. ( ABC Darwin: Emilia Terzon )

Mr Findlay said the biggest issues farmers faced was an unwillingness among many Australians to pick crops.

"We employ Australians wherever we can get them, but for us it has been very hard to get Australians to come and do this work outside," he said.

"But we have a job that we've got to do, and so if there's a labour force that we can get and return every year, where we don't have the major cost involved with retraining, then that would be very welcome across not just stone fruit and summer fruit industries, but across all of horticulture."

Farmers have access to a range of seasonal worker programs, including 417 and 462 visas for people on temporary working holidays.

Department of Immigration and Border Protection statistics show the number of issued 417 and 462 visas in Australia remains steady, with more than 211,000 of the two visa types approved in 2016-17.

That was down on the 214,583 issued in the previous year.

Trial to help farmers, get unemployed people into work

The Government has allocated $30 million to its Seasonal Work Incentives Trial, which began in July.

The program is capped at 3,800 Newstart and Youth Allowance recipients each year.

The 14 people on the program represent a participation rate of 0.37 per cent of available placements within the scheme.

Trial participants can receive up to $300 in living away and travel allowances if the work is more than 120 kilometres from home.

The trial also includes cash incentives for employment service providers to get unemployed people to work on farms.

South Australian MP Rebekha Sharkie, from the Nick Xenophon Team, lobbied the Federal Government to run the two-year trial.

"I'm going to be asking questions of the Minister, when we go back to Canberra, what they're doing to promote the seasonal workers trial," she said.

"I think [after] talking with a number of people who are looking for work, they would be keen to take on work on farm.

"It is hard work but it is something fresh to put on your resume.

"I think this is a great opportunity. We just need to make sure everyone knows about it."

Farmers say the worker shortage they are facing is a big problem that needs to be solved now. ( ABC Open: Brad Marsellos )

MP hopes more Australians will seek farm work

A Department of Employment spokeswoman said more than 100 positions were currently available, with the majority of work in regional NSW.

"As different regions hit their harvest season, we would anticipate that vacancies will increase in those regions," she said.

The department held information sessions in all states and territories prior to the trial commencing.

It will hold additional sessions to boost awareness across the country during the next two months.

Ms Sharkie said she was yet to be convinced of the need for a new visa, and hoped more Australians would seek farm work.

She said she wanted the unemployed worker trial completed before the Government considered visa changes.

But Mr Rogers said farmers could not afford to wait two more years.

"The fact is that produce is being grown now. The harvest time has come and they [can't] wait for the changes of government policy or for programs to be properly tested," he said.

"We need labour out there right now, available to pick the fruit and satisfy the need, which is real and serious and quite large."

Reliable workforce needed to be competitive globally

Mr Findlay backed the NFF's push for a new agriculture visa.

He said it would help farmers compete in global markets, particularly throughout Asia.

"It can lower our cost of production because you don't have that training [and] you don't have that productivity lag with [your] workforce," he said.

"You'd have people coming back [each year] who are knowing what their roles and jobs are.

"It then helps us when we're competing on an international stage against the likes of Chile."

A Department of Immigration and Border Protection spokesperson said the Government was in the "early stages of creating a system that will have the flexibility to better respond to economic and labour force needs".