The NFF had lost much of its lobbying credibility in recent years after both WA farm groups and the South Australian Farmers Federation had pulled out because of what they considered exorbitant membership fees and a perceived lack of value for their money.

WAFarmers resigned in 2002 and the PGA did likewise in 2007.

WAFarmers president Mike Norton said the previous membership fee structure was prohibitive because it was based on each state's gross value of production.

But now the NFF's new membership fees are structured "in a way commensurate with each state farming organisation's own respective membership income", Mr Norton said.

"We want to be back with the NFF and this will make it easier for us to rejoin.

"We are a long away from Canberra and we need a strong political presence there.

The PGA could also be set to rejoin.

The group had left in acrimonious circumstances two years ago when it was expelled from NFF for being in arrears of their subscriptions.

The PGA's compromise of paying for one seat around the table, to help maintain a WA presence on the NFF, was rejected.

But PGA president Rob Gillam said the group would reconsider its options at the next executive meeting.

NFF president David Crombie said the changes were aimed at "allowing for wider representation, engagement through the whole agricultural supply chain and an even stronger focus on evidence-based research and policy development".

"We are also enabling agricultural entities including agribusiness to be more involved with NFF through an Associate Member category, with this block of membership allotted a 40pc stake in voting rights," he said.

See full report in this week's Farm Weekly