IT'S official - mining projects directly cost agriculture jobs.
But farm groups are divided over what to do about it.
A study paid for by one of mining magnate Clive Palmer's companies has found his $8.8 billion "China First" coal project would cost 450 jobs in agriculture and a further 4050 in manufacturing.
It would create as many as 6000 mining jobs during construction and take 55,000ha out of agricultural production.
The jobs lost in agriculture and manufacturing would disappear because the mining project would help keep the Australian dollar high and push wages up, the study found.
Australian Farm Institute chief executive Mick Keogh said Minerals Council chief Mitch Hooke had conceded the Australian dollar would not "return to 70 cents" so long as the mining boom continued.
Mr Keogh said the high dollar "renders food processors absolutely uncompetitive" and had "flow-on effects as to how 0horticulture is structured long term".
"We're looking at Dutch disease, where (one sector of the economy booms while other sectors do not) you suck resources to a particular sector and it makes the rest of the economy hollow," Mr Keogh said.
He said mining employed about 2 per cent of working Australians, "much less than agriculture".
Victorian Farmers Federation president Andrew Broad said mining was here to stay.
"What do you do, stop mining?" he asked. "You don't 'not do' something because of adverse affect on something else if the net benefit is there."
But he said mining royalties should be used to build infrastructure including rail links for freight.
Wool had made more money for Australia than mining in the 1980s and the pendulum could again swing back to agriculture.
"As we move to higher population (and more food is required), food production may become more valuable than the mining industry," Mr Broad said, adding this meant farmland needed protection.
The National Farmers' Federation and Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association did not return calls on the issue.
