The wild Australian Gossypium species arei subdivided into three sections. Sturtia. Hibiscoidea and Grandicalyx. The first two sections together contain five species. and include the widespread and locally abundant G. sturtianum and C. australe, respectively. Section Grandicalyx contains a further twelve species restricted to the Kimberley region or northwestern Australia and the Cobourg Peninsula in the Northern Territory. Until recently. the Grandicalyx taxa were poorly known. and phytochemical data have not previously been reported. Indeed. the phytochemistry or species belonging to sections Sturtia and Hibiscoidea is only now being investigated closely.

Australian cotton production relies heavily on insecticides for the control of the major pests, Helicoverpa spp. , mites and sucking insects (Fitt 1994). An over-reliance on insecticides results in problems of insecticide resistance, disruption of natural enemies and environmental contamination and has cast doubt on the long term viability of reliance on synthetic insecticides. The efforts of the cotton industry is to reduce the dependence on insecticide. This can be achieved by developing control programs that integrate minimal use of pesticides with other forms of control, especially predation by natural enemies of Helicoverpa spp. Despite widespread use of economic thresholds and the so called &quote;soft options&quote; in the current production systems, little emphasis has been placed on beneficial insects, while the reliance on chemicals negates the use of the term integrated pest management (IPM) for such a system. In cotton crops in Australia an average of 8 to 12 insecticide sprays are applied each season to control Helicoverpa spp. and other pests. A true IPM system should conserve natural enemies of the pests using appropriate techniques and utilize them as basic components in the management of these pests. An IPM program is usually a package consisting of different components of pest control which are integrated in stages during the development of the program. Since 1992, we have been developing an IPM program for cotton and have reached a stage where we have produced cotton yields similar to those obtained from crops which has been managed with conventional insecticides. We report here stage 5 of our IPM program where we integrated Envirofeast product and Iucerne crop refugia with Gemstar virus (NPV), a product developed by Biosys Inc.

Most pest management practitioners agree that our current approaches are not sustainable and integrated pest management (IPM) is the way of the future. IPM in cotton means different things to different people and there is some element of thought that our present lPM approach is more of an ideal than a reality. True integration, involving modifications to make diverse tactics compatible and reduce counter effects, is the essence of the approach (Pedigo 1989). Attitudes must change! The idea that &quote;the only good bug is a dead bug&quote; must give way to an appreciation of the ecological role of a pest species and acceptance of their presence. This change can only come about by education at all levels.

Resistance is a serious threat to transgenic cottons. Australian cotton growers are very familiar with the devastation that the industry can suffer from insecticide resistance, as in the Ord in the 1970s. Similarly, cotton growers are also well aware of the importance of transgenic cotton for reducing pesticide use in the industry. Unfortunately, transgenic plants are no less subject to selection for resistance than classical insecticides. A major pest of cabbage, the diamondback moth, has already evolved resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) sprays in many cropping areas around the world. Bt-resistant diamondback moth larvae can be selected by and are completely resistant to transgenic plants that carry exactly the same Bt gene (&quote;CrylA&quote;) as is used in transgenic (INGARD) cotton (Metz, Roush, Tang, SheIton, and Earle, 1995 Molecular Breeding I: 309-317). There is every reason to suspect that a few cotton bollworms carry a resistance gene that is very similar to that in diamondback moth. Further, in contrast to insecticide sprays, the Bt toxin is continuously expressed in transgenic plants, which means that every insect feeding on them will be selected for resistance. This persistent exposure offers the potential of even stronger selection for resistance than would come from sprays. There is also evidence that genes for resistance to Bt may be more common than were genes for resistance to chemical insecticides, which could also give faster resistance. Thus, resistance management is at least as critical to transgenic crops as it has been for chemical insecticides.

Many researchers are involved in the evaluation of rotation cropping in several cropping systems experiments being conducted throughout the cotton production area. As well, many growers have been testing various rotation systems and are providing practical and proven information on the positive and negative aspects of these systems.

The Australian cotton industry is heavily dependent on the use of chemical insecticides and herbicides. The off-farm movement of these pesticides has created a number of &quote;environmental&quote; issues for the industry. The major ones are related to: the presence of pesticides in the riverine environment; the contamination of pasture and fodder crops leading to residues in livestock, particularly related to the use of Helix' (chlorfluazuron) and endosulfan; community health concerns related to droplet drift and odour.

The DLWC (Department of Land and Water Conservation) has operated the Central and North West Regions Water Quality Program for the past 5 seasons in the Namoi,Gwydir, Macquarie and Border Rivers catchments. The program has covered 4 main areas of study: pesticides, nutrients, biological monitoring and trace metals and their relationship to the growing of irrigated cotton (Cooper, 1995).

Biopesticides based on Heliothis nuclear polyhedrosis virus (NPV), one of the Baculovims group, are notable for their potency, specificity and safety. The virus constitutes a natural mortality factor in Heliothis populations on cotton (Wilson and Greenup, 1977) and other crops. It has evolved to produce vast amounts of infectious virus per infected insect. This can be exploited by laboratory mass production of the virus, and dissemination by the grower using conventional spray equipment. This paper is designed to give background to reports on &quote;Gemstar&quote; trials during the past two seasons. A brief history of its development as an insecticide in Australia is given in Table I.

With the imminent release of cotton varieties expressing the n\IGARD gene to control Helicoverpa the time has come to consider in detail the elements of the proposed resistance management plan for transgenic cotton. The characteristics and value of cotton varieties with INGARD and the critical need for a pre-emptive resistance strategy has been discussed widely over the past few years' Through collaboration of numerous entomologists and industry the components of a strategy have been identified and researched and details of the resistance strategy for 1996-97 have been finalised by the TMS (Transgenic and insect Management Strategy) Committee with input from researchers, growers, consultants and industry partners. Details have been widely publicised (Fitt 1996, Forrester, this proceedings). The strategy focuses squarely on Heliothis armigera as the pest most likely to evolve resistance to INGARD varieties, just as it has to conventional chemicals. Of the four man components (planting window, refuges, overwinter cultivation to destroy pupae and late season Helicoverpa control), the concept of providing refuges to assist resistance management is perhaps the most novel aspect of the whole strategy, and the most critical component. It is also likely to be the most challenging aspect for growers and the most difficult to implement effectively. Here I will briefly explain the concept of a refuge, why we need them, precisely what they are, how they work and what they will mean for growers.

ACF simply contends that far too much water has been taken from the Murray Darling for irrigation and that insufficient water is left to manage in ways which meet the ecological needs of the rivers and their floodplains, wetlands and billabongs . In a nutshell, environmental flows means water which is allowed to flow through the system in ways which best mimic natural flow regime, thereby meeting the needsof native fish, invertebrates, waterbirds and plants.