Floodplains along river systems of the northern Murray-Darling Basin contain a diversity of wetland habitats, maintained through highly variable patterns of flood inundation. However, in catchments such as the Border Rivers, the development of irrigation farms on floodplain areas and subsequent flow regulation has reduced the extent and frequency of floods and led to a Due to the flow variability of the system, irrigators use on-farm water storages to store water until required for irrigation. With the decline in natural wetlands, these water storages may now represent a key form of artificial aquatic habitat within the Border Rivers. A conceptual model was developed to explore the drivers affecting the biodiversity of on-farm storages. It is believed that ring tanks with a greater selection of habitat types and more complex morphology will support a more abundant and diverse animal community. Potential management options to improve storage biodiversity include adding coarse woody debris to the banks, planting aquatic vegetation and limiting recycled tailwater to only one storage on the property.

AWARDS SEASON, To Plant or not to Plant, Nitrogen Trial in a Nutshell

The topic of this travel fellowship was the water-energy-emissions nexus in irrigated agriculture. This fellowship allowed me to meet with world class researchers working on various aspects of this topic, extending my network of industry contacts. A key benefit was the exposure to the latest research and ideas, which will provide an opportunity for these to potentially be adapted to the Australian situation. Similar research carried out as part of my PhD studies is pertinent to the major challenges facing irrigators both in Australia and internationally. Given the current global focus on water and food shortages in conjunction with a drive to reduce emissions, this fellowship provided a timely opportunity to explore the links between these factors in irrigated agriculture.

The countries visited were Turkey, Israel, the UK and US. The irrigation industry in each of these countries is very different in terms of scale, technology, legislation and state of research. In Turkey I met with researchers from three universities, several of whom were working on energy in irrigation for pumping. Discussions with Dr Bilal Acar and Dr Ramazan T opak were useful in terms of understanding their approach to quantifying energy consumption.

In Israel, the highly technological state of irrigation and water resources management was evident everywhere. I had the opportunity to travel from the relatively fertile north to the extremely arid south of the country, witnessing throughout the abrupt changes in landscape and methods of adaptation. The high input irrigation sector was explored in nurseries/greenhouses, horticultural, viticultural and broad acre production systems.

In the UK, my experiences focussed on water and carbon accounting and climate change impacts, where there is a lot of interest in these areas, both on the part of researchers but also driven by consumer demand through supermarkets as well as government departments.

The USA gave me the chance to discuss the issues surrounding biofuel development, as well as to meet with several irrigators to explore their methods of coping as water availability declines. A particular highlight was meeting with Professor David Pimentel at Cornell University, who was the pioneer of research into energy in ecosystems and agriculture in the 1970s, and continues his research to this day.

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This travel fellowship has allowed me to both contribute my ideas and learn from others regarding the issues facing irrigated agriculture internationally, and to explore the potential impacts of climate change on this vital sector of the agricultural industry. A better understanding of these challenges will help with the development of strategies to adapt to changes brought about by a changing climate and related policies.

6th Pacific Rim Conference, held at the Fairmount Empress Hotel, Victoria, BC, Canada from

the 30th of October to the 3rd of November 2005.

The poster, 'Evaluation of border cell number and Cry protein expression from root tips of

Gossypium hirsutum(Oliver G. G. Knox and Gupta V. S. R. Vadakattu), was well received and

generated plenty of interest amongst the 90 attending delegates as well as some interesting

debate. The poster presentation has been converted to a short paper for inclusion in

the conterence proceedings, due for publication April 2006.

A projects overview 2006 -07 of the Social and Institutional Research Program

The Australian cotton industry has been able to remain competitive in a global commodity market due to a number of factors, including: its ability to produce high quality cotton, grow world-leading yields, maintain low levels of contamination, and provide reliable shipments. Increasingly these advantages are being eroded, as competing growths improve their yield and quality, and pay more attention to managing contamination. Furthermore, the introduction of transgenic cotton varieties, and the increased speed with which technology can be adapted and adopted has lead to improved yields world-wide. It is likely that Australia's competitive advantages will not be as large, nor last as long as they used to. To maintain its place as a preferred supplier, the Australian cotton industry needs to continually improve on its performance in the areas noted above, and ideally, further differentiate its product so that it remains the product of choice in a discerning market.

The Cotton Production Course began in 1994 and originally consisted of three units; Applied Cotton Production, Cotton Protection and Cotton and the Environment. At that time the Australian cotton industry was expanding rapidly so there was strong demand for a course that provided the principles of how to grow and protect cotton crops. There was also growing recognition that better environmental management practices were necessary to satisfy governing bodies about cotton farming, particularly in regard to pesticides. A fourth unit was added in 1999 called Australian Cotton Farming Systems and Technology Transfer™ when Australian Universities were compelled by the Federal Government to standardise the size of university units to help students move between courses at different universities, here and abroad. The agricultural certificate courses in Australia were deemed to require four units (rather than three at UNE) and be of 150 hours work each (rather than the previous 180 hours). The cotton units were redesigned to meet these requirements. This fourth unit (Systems) accepted the overflow of topics, mainly by shifting the communications workshop into the fourth unit. Important ancillary topics that related to cotton production were also added to the cotton production course over the next three years. These included understanding cotton fibre technology, cotton spinning, and how to compare the economic performance of cotton farms. Systems is also a unit that has been used to accommodate personnel development topics like team working and presentation skills. Some topics are very much about cotton production, its products and markets, others are about general attributes that we consider useful for graduates in industry. In response to student evaluations in 2008, the residential school for the Systems unit was redesigned to accommodate a full day of on-farm consultancy, rather than the previous 3 hour session. Cotton production, the environment have always been major topics in the consultancy but from 2008, there has been a strong emphasis on ˜the business of farming'™ particularly as the challenge or reduced water supply and economic downturn. Aspects of current socioeconomic impacts in rural Australia and an introduction to leadership have since been included into the units. The cotton production units attract experienced and trainee agronomists, including growers from throughout the cotton growing areas of eastern Australia. Recent drought years and declining terms of trade for cotton have led to reduced enrollments. The cotton course services the needs of trainee agronomists and trainee consultants, many completing the course immediately following their agricultural degrees. Each unit offered externally includes a residential school of three to four days duration. Internally enrolled (on-campus) students take part in a three day excursion to the Narrabri/Moree areas and/or receive a workshop at their University delivering the Applied Cotton Production material. The cotton course continues to receive very positive reviews from the industry and participants particularly about the residential schools but the size of the market demanding specific cotton production education is declining.

Sponsorship funding for the 5th Australian National Soil Judging Competition took place over three days in Toowoomba, Queensland from 26 to 28 September. Twelve teams from Australia and New Zealand’s leading universities battled it out for top honours. The motto for the competition was ‘Developing the future’ and everyone who attended would agree that the next generation of soil scientists was able to develop their soils knowledge, description and classification skills and networking prowess.

Teams were confronted with some unseasonably hot conditions, with the thermometer on competition day reaching 38oC and a stiff hot north-westerly wind. Though the students and organising staff took all of this in their stride and marched on to ensure the event was a success.

The primary aim of this project is to determine whether inexpensive Drones (UAVs) can be used to detect and define early stage VW in cotton. This scope of the project also specifies that equipment used must be easy to operate and be readily available to the farming community. To satisfy these criteria, this project used Red Green Blue (RGB) images obtained from a Phantom 3 Professional drone. Near Infrared (NIR) and multispectral analysis were outside the scope of this project.

Project requirements also specify that locations of VW affected plants must be determined.

In the last few years Australia's renewable energy sector has gone from niche to mainstream, resulting in cost reduction and a reduced need for government.

This travel sponsorship enabled one researcher to attend the 2017 Australian Energy Storage Conference to investigate the latest energy storage technology which may be applicable to irrigated cotton pumping systems, with the view to lowering energy costs.

The following highlights were reported:

a) major findings and outcomes

• Lithium-ion battery technology is becoming more affordable in some scenarios. Several case study presentations on incorporating solar/batteries into hospitals and schools revealed low payback periods and high penetration (~80%) lowering the dependence on grid technology;

• Flywheel energy storage - a potential addition to energy storage for irrigators. Flywheel provides short term energy and offers flow-on benefits through longevity of battery storage systems, which are renowned for a short (10 y) life;

• Cost of solar - the cost of solar has continued to be reduced through productivity gains. The reduction in RECs from 15 to 14 years has been mnore than offset by a reduction in panel prices; and

• Engineering contacts and providers to regional areas - I have made contacts of companies servicing cotton areas. Competition among service providers has been an issue in remote areas where cotton is grown.

• Hydrogen as an energy source - some interesting R&D going on in this space which will be investigated further in the next 3 year project term.

b) other highlights

• Hybrid vehicle technology

• Industrial storage technology - large projects in California

• Roundturn and battery storage - "energy in vs energy out" on a charge cycle for a range of different battery technologies