The Measuring Sustainability in Cotton Farming Systems: Towards a Guidance Framework provides an overview of critical sustainability issues for cotton growing and recommends a set of indicators to assess and measure progress against these.

The report was published by the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) Expert Panel on Social, Environmental and Economic Performance of Cotton Production and the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in April 2015. CRDC R&D Manager Allan Williams is the Chair of the ICAC panel and co-author of this report.

The indicators in the report cover environmental (pest and pesticide management; water management; soil management; land use and biodiversity; and climate change), economic (economic viability, poverty reduction and food security; economic risk management) and social (labour rights and standards; occupational health and safety; equity and gender; and farmer organisations) issues that affect cotton growing countries the world over.

The report references sustainability programs run by cotton growing countries around the world, including Australia's own myBMP program, and the Better Cotton Initiative, of which Australia is a member.