FIREBREAKS around every cropping paddock would cost the State millions of dollars and would have little hope of stopping a fire the magnitude of the Wangary Bushfire, South Australian Farmers’ Federation president Peter White said.

Mr White spoke at a forum in Port Lincoln on Thursday about the recommendations from the coronial inquest into the Wangary bushfire.

The inquest recommended enforcing firebreaks on rural land to stop a bushfire spreading, but Mr White said fire breaks around every cropping paddock would take in excess of 120,000 hectares out of production across the State.

He said a conservative figure of $1000 a hectare would mean a $120 million loss to the State and the breaks would have “negligible impact” on the result of a fire like the Wangary bushfire.

“It may be better to have 20, 30, 40-metre breaks less often rather than smaller ones.”

Mr White said the SAFF and individual farmers had already made changes since the January 2005 fire but there was still a lot of work to be done.

The first three recommendations from the coronial inquest were related to current farming methods, in particular direct drilling, and how it impacts on bushfire risk and prevention.

Mr White said SAFF recognised new farming practices left more crop residue, which presented issues for fire fighting.

“We acknowledge we have a commitment and responsibility to bushfire prevention but we can’t afford to change our fundamental farming system where we don’t delve.

“The cost and impact to the environment would be enormous.”

Mr White said direct drilling had reduced carbon emissions from the cropping process by 40 per cent because it locked the carbon into the soil and the reduction in burning stubble reduced the amount of carbon going into the atmosphere.

He said the Federal Government would be unlikely to support a return to conventional farming methods because it would alienate its carbon trading system.

But he said if there were modifications they could make to address bushfire risk while still getting the environmental benefits and increased production it would.

One of the key changes was introducing a more user friendly harvesting code of practice to help farmers decide when it is safe to harvest.

The code was trialled last season but will be properly implemented this year after a review.

Mr White said the code allowed individual farmers to make their own assessment on whether it was safe to harvest based on a simple chart taking into account temperature, relative humidity and wind speed.