The federal opposition is convinced that too little studies were being undertaken by the federal government in the growing trend of foreign ownership of agri-business operations in Australia even as a government audit has been committed by the treasury to pore over into the issue by next year.

The federal government said that the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is set to gather data from more than 170,000 agricultural operations across the country while the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) is tapped by the authorities to look into the nature of foreign roles in Australian agri-business operations.

The notion of agricultural audit came amidst claims by the Australian Greens that foreign investments in the country's agricultural resources could be utilised by offshore interests to encroach into the local riches of the Australian agri-businesses and thereby assure their food security at the expense of the country's resources.

However, assistant treasurer Bill Shorten called for caution in making baseless accusations about the issue as he assured all parties concerned that the audit should at least provide the necessary facts that would pave the way for a better debate on the questions being pushed forward.

In lieu of the yet to be started audit, Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig said that the undue alarm being sounded by Coalition could be premature at this stage as he revealed that as of the latest government information, almost 99 percent of Australia's agri-business operations are controlled by Australian families.

Mr Ludwig said only 0.1 percent of non-family farms are being operated by foreign entities, who he said were attracted in investing into agricultural interests due to Australian farmers famed ability to deliver efficient production of high quality food.

Still, opposition agriculture spokesman Joe Cobb appeared unimpressed as he stressed that the government should go beyond its planned audit and institute more effective efforts in ensuring that farms acquisitions by foreign entities are subjected to the scrutiny of the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Mr Cobb said that the information available for now regarding the issue were just insufficient as he pushed for an inquiry by the Productivity Commission on the matter, enjoining his colleagues at the same time to opt for a joint parliamentary committee investigation to squeeze for more available data on the question at hand.