The Burdekin region of coastal north Queensland and other areas of tropical Australia provide a significant opportunity for Australian cotton industry stabilisation and contribution to drought proofing. The research that preceded this proposal made significant progress toward the development of a production package for the wet season that incorporates strategies for managing seasonal variability. The focus of this project was to continue and extend upon research work conducted in predecessor projects "The development of sustainable cotton farming systems for coastal north Queensland" and "Completion of Burdekin cotton feasibility study". The wet season in the monsoon tropics is a unique environment for cotton production in Australia. Hence, to reliably achieve this potential requires an agronomic production package tailored to and validated under local conditions rather than the accepted norms of southern production.

A changed political landscape now permits commercial cotton production in the Gulf region of NQ, the Kimberley and Pilbara of WA and the top end of the NT. A key objective this project was to provide expert knowledge to assist cotton investment decisions, validate the Burdekin production package for new wet season growing areas, extend past research to dry season cotton growing areas and support implementation of sustainable and economic production practices for those regions. The knowledge gained from this and predecessor projects was also relevant to cotton regions with climates not typical of the older industry (e.g. CQ and southern NSW) hence this project also supported relevant research and delivery activities in these regions.