VicSoil, a new research centre, would be set up by opposition, if elected in November

Opposition Agriculture spokesman Peter Walsh told the Victorian Famers Federation Symposium, Melbourne said the government's research capacity needed to be boosted.

"You don't have that intellectual knowledge in the department and into the future - 95 per cent of the food we eat and 100pc of the fibre we produce in Victoria actually has its genesis in the soils we have on our farms," Mr Walsh said.

"Probably the single greatest natural resource any property has is their soil and its maintenance, it supports a $17.5 billion industry."

He said a future coalition government would spent $10 million a year, over the next decade, in establishing and funding VicSoil in conjunction with the federal Soil CRC.

"I think every farmer wants to increase the structure of their soil, increase the organic matter in their soil, the moisture retention and, in recent times, increase the ability of their soils to store carbon," Mr Walsh said.

Innovation had helped but there needed to be good base research, done by government, to make sure it continued.

.It was important to give funding certainty to give scientists to do the base research "that other organisations could take to market," he said.

"There are a lot of very good private consultants who can take that base research out to market and make sure it actually delivers in the particular soil types and climates, around Victoria.

That would allow maintenance and improvement of soils.

"It is good for business, it is good for the environment, if we can store more carbon in the soil, as a lot of people aspire to, but nobody seems to know how to do," he said.

"It's an environmental policy as well, there is an aspiration to use our soils to store carbon and reduce it in the atmosphere.

"That can be done, but it needs the research that we can measure it, achieve it and have farmers getting benefit out of it."

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Mr Walsh said it would also help address the "brain drain", accelerated by recent voluntary redundancies in departments like Agriculture Victoria.

"We have lost a lot of research capacity in this state and we actually want to get the government back into base research," he said.

"The 150 jobs was only the last round, if you go over the eight years the Andrews government has been in power, there is a lot more jobs than that go out of AgVic.

"It was once a standalone department, now it is a division of a department."

Mr Walsh said could put a number of scientists who would be employed.

"We will make sure we listen to the department and get the best outcome."

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He also told the symposium he had grave concerns the role of farmers and the VFF in decision-making had been reduced over the last eight years of the current government.

"Big Brother, the government, has stripped away farmers' involvement in a lot of decision making," he said.

"The first of those is the industry funds, the cattle and sheepmeat compensation funds - you had positions on those funds to guide how money was spent, particularly in a biosecurity emergency.

"That has been taken away from the legislation and the government can appoint whoever they want.

"The department, over time, have always wanted to get their hands on those funds and use them to substitue for government funding."

He said if the opposition were elected, it would reinstate the right for the VFF to appoint representatives, "which is a really important part of protecting your transaction levies, in case there is a biosecurity outbreak in Victoria."

The government had also taken away the requirement for 50 per cent of catchment management authority boards to be made up of landholders.

"That enables a government of the day to put their mates on those boards," he said.

There was also continuing concern over licenced riverfront camping.

"We don't want to see people in there, for a maximum of 30 days, destroying the environment," he said.

The opposition would also strengthen farm trespass laws, recently introduced by the government.

"It's a good start, we would amend it again to put fines in place, similar to NSW - we don't think the penalties are high enough and we will make sure the courts actually enforce those laws," he said."