The food bowl includes dairy farms, abbatoirs, market gardens in Cranbourne, Clyde, Devon Meadows, orchards in Toomuc Valley, Pakenham Upper, Tynong North and Garfield, and rich soils around Koo Wee Rup swamp.

But farmer Frank Lamattina, who owns 40hectares either side of Moores Road in Clyde that "supplies the nation" with vegetables, fears his business may fall for the sake of "a few town houses".

This month, the State Government announced a proposed urban growth boundary extension that would envelop parts of the food bowl, including Clyde and Devon Meadows.

The area includes Mr Lamattina's farm, which produces about 100tonnes of crops for markets in Sydney, Adelaide and Footscray each month.

"Twelve months of the year we crop - that's the beauty of this land, you can't get land like this." He estimates that urban development won't arrive in his area for up to 15 years, but is afraid that in the meantime, he won't be able to afford rising rates.

"Forty years [here] and a good established [family] business for 55 years, we're happy what we're doing. We don't want to jeopardise our business for the sake of a few town houses."

Clyde vegetable grower Tom Schreurs, who also has property within the extended urban boundary, says life could be more difficult for farmers next door to housing estates. "We don't want to be directly next to residential areas. A road isn't a suitable buffer zone."

Outer suburban residents near farms typically had problems with odours from fowl manures, fertilisers and chemical spray or the noise of irrigation pumps.

On the other hand, farms near residential estates were more susceptible to vandalism.

Mr Schreurs wants greater buffers of land bought by the Government to separate residential areas and farms.

Gerald Leach, the chairman of the Victorian Farmers Federation's land committee, said the urban sprawl underlined a "major failure" in developing regional areas.

"The overriding principle should be that rather than extending Melbourne into agricultural land, there should be more focus on regional development."