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. This proposal will 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". This R&D has demonstrated potential to grow good yields of quality cotton in the Burdekin with the potential for management strategies to minimise the impact of late wet season cloud cover that reduces radiation needed for growth that can occur in 30% of years. 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. The research that has preceded this proposal has made significant progress toward the development of a production package for the wet season that incorporates strategies for managing seasonal variability.

A changed political landscape now permits commercial cotton production in the Gulf region of North Queensland(NQ), the Kimberley and Pilbara of Western Australia(WA) and the top end of the Northern Territory(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. Central Queensland(CQ) and southern NSW) hence this project also supported relevant research and delivery activities in these regions.

The RD&E proposed in this project has four objectives: 1) Undertake research for the development of crop husbandry packages for the Burdekin region to manage the heavy clay soils and complete research aimed at reducing risks associated with seasonal variability, 2) Undertake research to investigate means to better integrate cotton into crop rotation systems unique to the Burdekin; that is to measure the impact on cotton in a sugar / grain rotations and to continue evaluation of cotton / grain annual rotation. The cotton rotation with sugar rotation research will be linked with a new GRDC, SRDC, QDEEDI and BSES systems project. 3) Provide specialist knowledge to growers on cotton production in the Burdekin and other tropical growing areas and subtropical central Queensland. There will be a significant capacity building component to this project as new growers will need to gain expertise quickly to avoid costly mistakes. 4) To publish Burdekin research in peer reviewed scientific journals and make the outcomes available to industry.

Research in this unique environment has and will also continue to add valuable knowledge in crop physiology and management that is benefiting the whole industry. Some recent examples include the impact and recovery of cotton growth in cloudy and humid conditions following flooding in CQ.