Farmers say the federal government must help them with tax breaks and underwriting fertiliser purchases to survive the fuel crisis, with Monday’s national cabinet expected to discuss more assistance to businesses amid ballooning petrol prices.

Federal and state governments have remained tight-lipped about what would be on the meeting’s agenda but state premiers have urged the Albanese government to take a stronger national coordination role in the crisis.

State and federal leaders were not expected to back petrol rationing, with the health minister, Mark Butler, saying the Albanese government wanted the “lightest possible touch” interventions as fuel supply issues loomed.

But business groups on Sunday called for help for companies to retain employees and cashflow support as flow-on effects from rising fuel prices began to hit the farming, transport and mining sectors.

The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) said on Sunday that the national cabinet must agree on a plan for agriculture, including a guaranteed fuel supply and more support to secure fertiliser, to safeguard food production.

“Growers are deciding whether they can afford to buy fertiliser, fuel the tractor and sow a crop,” the NFF president, Hamish McIntyre, said. “Many will need to make that call before Anzac Day and some in horticulture are already there.

“Without certainty on fuel and fertiliser, some will scale back, and that has real consequences for food production and prices.”

Interruptions to shipping in the strait of Hormuz, from the US-Israel war on Iran, have also disrupted fertiliser imports. The NFF wants the government to help underwrite purchases of fertiliser for raising crops after Anthony Albanese announced a similar plan for fuel purchases on Saturday. McIntyre said some farmers were already rationing their own fuel and delaying or even cancelling their harvests or planting.

“Government must consider all options, including temporary tax relief and targeted support measures, to keep businesses operating through this period,” he said.

“At the end of the day, if farmers can’t access fuel and fertiliser, they can’t produce food.”

Federal sources said they were keenly aware of the pressures faced by diesel-intensive industries like farming and mining, as well as business concerns.

The prime minister on Saturday said he preferred “voluntary arrangements rather than any mandating from the top” but said the crisis required “national leadership” to ensure “we don’t have eight different systems going eight different directions”.

Governments in Tasmania and Victoria have announced a month of free public transport, though New South Wales and Western Australia have resisted following suit.

The NSW transport minister, John Graham, said on Sunday: “This situation will last more than a month.”

“We need to keep our powder dry to be able to assist the broader economy. That’s the concern of the New South Wales government, we’re really planning to make sure that we can make it through this next period.”

The WA premier, Roger Cook, batted back questions by referencing “historically low” public transport fares in his state.

Butler said issues such as public transport, encouraging employees to work from home and ways to ease demand for fuel could be discussed at the national cabinet but that any decisions would be made “through the prism of common sense”.

“There’s a lot of behavioural change under way in the country,” Butler said on Sunday. “We see now there’s much higher rates of usage of public transport. More people where they can are working from home. But I know that doesn’t work for everyone. It doesn’t work for nurses and doctors.

“We want to see the highest level coordination and consistency across the country. We don’t want to see state-by-state responses that differ across different borders. And we also want to see the lightest possible touch to ensure that we’re very much leaning on common sense rather than top-down mandates.”

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, said she would advocate in the national cabinet for the agricultural sector, which was in prime planting season.

“I’m very focused on supporting national measures for our agricultural sector to have certainty of supply, particularly because they rely on diesel more than any other industry,” she said.