Federal, state and territory agriculture ministers will meet on Tuesday to formalise the code which will be presented to National Cabinet on Friday for final tick-off.

NSW supports unrestricted movement subject to COVID-safe plans including use of personal protective equipment and individual record-keeping to assist contact tracing efforts.

But in reality the NSW government has been dragging the chain on the issue with the Queensland government agreeing to unrestricted movement for ag workers between the two states a week ago and the Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud publicly pressuring NSW to do the same on the Victorian border.

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro and Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall on Monday outlined their plans to bring agriculture into line with protocols already in place for the freight industry.

"If we fail this Friday in relation to a code for the agriculture sector we can all hang our heads in shame because what we will be doing is sending regional and rural NSW on a path to destruction and despair off the back of drought, bushfires and the COVID pandemic," Mr Barilaro said.

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Mr Marshall said Australians would suffer if there was no national code.

"If it's good enough for the critical workers in the freight industry then it is damn well good enough for agriculture and agricultural workers as well because their work is essential," he said.

"Without them we don't get the crops off the paddock over the next few months, we don't pick the fruit off the trees and we go hungry as a nation and we pay more for food."

Member for Murray Helen Dalton said the NSW government didn't need to wait for National Cabinet to fix the agriculture worker movement issue which has been festering since the last round of border permit changes more than fortnight ago.

"The NSW government is the one who put border restrictions in place," she said.

"If they were serious about agriculture they wouldn't have stood by and let it get to this point."

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said: "Within the border communities (agriculture workers) can move very freely.

"But what we're talking about is agriculture workers being able to go from a non-border community to any part of NSW.

"That is a very different proposition and a different risk.

"I will absolutely be waiting until Friday for advice because who am I to make a decision without getting the health advice?

"I would never do that.

"I completely empathise with our agriculture communities, I think they do have a case to put forward in terms of workers moving more freely, but we also need to make sure how we mitigate the risk of transmission into regional NSW."