LABOUR shortages and tough terms of trade are under the spotlight in the "Blueprint for Australian Agriculture'' to be launched tomorrow.

The Blueprint will be launched by National Farmers Federation president Jock Laurie and chief executive officer Matt Linnegar at the National Press Club in Canberra.

The Blueprint took 16 months to create and includes input from almost 4000 people from across agriculture and the supply chain.

Weekly Times Now understands the Blueprint revolves around seven themes of research and devleopment, competitiveness, trade and market access, people, natural resources, transformational issues and agriculture in society.

It's expected to be announced tomorrow that one of the aims of the Blueprint is to increase investment in research and development possibly through policy and tax changes.

It also proposes to make Australian farmers more competitive through a red tape register and a terms of trade index and reducing the impacts of  trade-distorting policies.

Weekly Times Now understands the Blueprint also includes proposals to expand the overseas worker program and have a bigger emphasis on agriculture in education to help meet the shortage of workers.