BIG SMOKE: Hundreds of burn offs – like this one – have been spewing smoke into the air as farmers prepare their paddocks for the next crop.
A SMOKY haze on a summer's day is nothing new to the people of Griffith but locals have begun to question whether it's time farmers took a closer look at the practice of burning off.
Between Tuesday to Friday last week, farmers lit more than 150 fires with 46 reported on Tuesday, 51 on Wednesday, 35 on Thursday and more than 19 on Friday.
Farmers are allowed to burn off throughout summer, provided they have obtained a permit from the Rural Fire Service (RFS).
Farmers are then required to call the RFS to report they are lighting a fire and no burn-off may be lit on a declared total fire ban day.
Many of the farmers are RFS volunteers and borrow a fire truck as a precaution.
"It's an agricultural practice that needs to occur for farmers to maximise the returns from their land," RFS zone manager Kevin Adams said.
"People have to respect that it's part of what happens here if it wasn't for farmers, the town wouldn't be here."
Many residents are badly affected by the smoke produced by burn-offs, which can trigger asthma attacks among other reactions.
Local environmental campaigner Phoebe Harrison was opposed to the burns-offs for health reasons above any other, but said there were many arguments against the agricultural practice.
"It seems ridiculous that they're still allowed to burn rice stubble it's an easy way out and I think they should look deeper into the options available," Mrs Harrison said.
Mrs Harrison said considering the increase in awareness about climate change, farmers should be more concerned about the effects burning off had on the environment.
"They have to put things back into the soil they can't just keep depleting it and burning off certainly depletes it," she said.
"They're going to all this trouble to grow crops to make fuel now why can't they look at converting the rice stubble into biofuel?"
