PEAK farm representation is a tough gig these days.

Declining farmer numbers and prolonged drought have been sucking membership dollars out of the system.

The first of these will continue, while droughts could become more regular as climate change proceeds.

On top of that, the current structures of farm representation are, to put it mildly, labyrinthine.

For example, farmers cannot be direct members of the National Farmers' Federation but can only be represented by joining a state farm group that is a paid-up NFF member.

State farm groups also provide funding for peak commodity councils, which in turn pay for their own membership of the NFF.

The scope for duplication and wasted resources is obvious, while the link between farmer and national representative is not.

No wonder farmers are increasingly reluctant to fund such a structure.

But what to do?

The reform process, which has been driven by President David Crombie, is essentially looking for salvation on two fronts.

It desperately wants to attract new NFF members, most notably from horticulture but also its SA and WA state "drop-outs", so it can "spread the funding load".

And it wants to tap into outside R&D and policy resources so it can add value to its internal efforts in these areas.

But the history of reform attempts is littered with failure. The most recent - the plan to create a streamlined, all-encompassing Australian Farmers group - foundered on opposition from state groups fearful of losing their identity.

This time, the NFF is taking things slowly, developing agreed principles first before going anywhere near a formal model.

That's kept everyone "in the tent" so far. Indeed, who could disagree with these goals: equity for members, wider representation, engaging with the supply chain, better communicating with farmers, financial stability, less duplication and more effective R&D, policy and advocacy work?

The crunch will come when it comes down to reform tintacks.

This will inevitably mean tough decisions on funding arrangements for all farm groups and what each will do (and not do) in a more streamlined future.

Unless farmers are given better "bang" for their representative "buck" in the process, a tough gig will quickly become no gig at all.