The main aim of this trip was to report to the international scientific community on the progress of the Insecticide Resistance Management St(ategy that has been implemented in Australia to contain pyrethroid and endosulfan resistance. Two papers were presented on aspects of this research: a) Pyrethroid and endosulfan resistance in Heliothis armigera in Australia - 6 years experience with a management strategy. b) Countermeasures for mfo mediated pyrethroid resistance in Heliothis armigera in Australia. 0 After the conference, a short field trip was undertaken to gauge the extent of the insecticide resistance problem in Heliothis and Plutella in Thailand

Weather prediction has been gradually improving over the last decade or so, with several factors contributing to the improvement. The two main contributors have been the advent, refining and increased frequency of satellite photography, and secondly the improvement in the mathematical simulation of the atmosphere's motion. Both these improvements have been incorporated into the Bureau of Meteorology's &quote;Cottonfields&quote; service, which routinely presents up to date satellite photographs and output from numerical weather models as part of the service. &quote;Cottonfields&quote; is accessed through a fax machine interface by potting a regularly updated databank, and during the period when the cotton is in the ground, up to 1500 calls a week are received. One of the man intentions of the service is to enable growers to improve their water management strategies, and to assist in this, rainfall predictions out to 4 days ahead are issued.

One approach in the drive by the cotton industry to introduce more effective and more sustainable methods of bollworm control than are presently available, has been to develop a new generation of insecticides based on naturally occurring insect pathogens such as the nuclear polyhedrosis viruses (NPVs). From an environmental standpoint, these bio control agents have the advantage of a much narrower target range, leave no toxic residues, and have no adverse effects on human or animal health. Although NPVs have been applied as insecticides since the 1940's, the relatively long time it takes to kill the insect target (often several days) has generally limited their use to low value, mostly perennial cropping systems eg forest plantations. This is no longer the case. With the advent of genetic engineering technologies in the late 1980's, has come the opportunity to significantly enhance their speed of kill&quote;'. As a consequence both the type of insect pests which can be controlled and the cropping systems which can be targeted have now broadened. In 1988, CSIRO's Division of Entomology initiated a programme to genetically modify an Australian NPV isolated, from the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera (HaNPV)for increased speed of kill (see Christian & Richards in these proceedings).

Salinity problems are due to the presence of a high concentration of soluble salts in soils or waters. Salinity processes are natural processes closely linked with landscape and soil formation processes,however, human activities such as agricultural development can accelerate salinity processes,contributing to long-term land and water degradation.

Concerns about the increase in resistance towards synthetic chemical insecticides in the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera, led the Australian cotton industry to adopt new pest management ideas. The introduction of INGARD' cotton containing a gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) which expresses the Cry1Ac toxin is one such idea. This transgenic cotton will be followed up with another, BOLLGARD II, which produces two Bt toxins, Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab. A major element of the introduction of transgenic plant technology will be to manage the risk of H. armigera becoming resistant to these insecticidal proteins.

Summary of seasoal outlook for 2015/15 season

Effective resistance monitoring underpins the Australian cotton resistance management strategy for insects and mites. We present monitoring data for two-spotted mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch and bean spider mite, Tetranychus ludeni Zacher for cotton seasons 1999-2000 and 2000-2001. Abamectin (Wizzard) propargite (Comite), diafenthiuron (Pegasus) and chlorfenapyr (intrepid) resistance were not detected however there was a worrying reduction in chlorfenapyr dose-response slope values between seasons. Bifenthrin (Talstar) resistance is increasing in both level and abundance in T.urticae but was not detected in T. ludeni. Profenofos resistance in T. urticae has dropped from a peak of 541x in 1999-2000 to 221x in 2000-2001 but would likely still give negligible control

Strains of cotton aphid and the green peach aphid were collected from cotton producing faints in eastern Australia. Green peach aphid was rarely collected but resistance to Curacron and Pirimor was documented. The abundance of cotton aphid populations showing Primer resistance appears be increasing, however, in contrast the abundance of Curacron may have reduced during 2001 I 2002. Talstar resistance was detected although the product is not registered for aphid control. Endosulfan, Confidor and Pegasus resistance was not detected. The results underpin the resistance management strategy for aphids in Australian cotton and are discussed in conjunction with management recommendations based on IPM principles.

The main aim of this project was to develop a low-cost multispectral airborne video imaging system (referred to as MAVIS) for detecting and monitoring spatial and temporal variations in the vigour of irrigated cotton crops caused by moisture related and other forms of stress. A related objective was to develop standard procedures to acquire, to analyse crop canopy spectral response with the aid of digital image processing, and to calibrate video imagery using traditional agronomic and field measurements for more effective management of water and other crop inputs. The ultimate goal was to assess the feasibility of establishing a commercial fee-for service operation to monitor and manage crops using digital analysis of airborne video imagery.

Cotton production worldwide uses 11 per cent of global insecticides each year and the trend continues to increase (Pesticide News, 2001). Overuse of pesticides can cause human ill-health, increase pest resistance and disrupt the activities of beneficial insects. At least 520 species of insects and mites, 50 plant diseases and 113 weed species have become resistant to insecticides, fungicides and herbicides meant to control them (Pesticide News V01. 47 and 48). There are two extremes in pest management. The first is organic where no pesticides are used to produce crops (this is not economical in Australian cotton production); the second is chemical control where only synthetic insecticides are used in pest management (this strategy is not sustainable and environmentally not acceptable). In between the two or halfway between the two extremes lies an integrated pest management system (IPM) where all types of control options viz; biological, cultural, chemical etc are integrated to manage pests on crops. The IPM approach reduces dependence on synthetic pesticides to control pests. The adoption of IPM for insect control by the Australian Cotton Industry may be regarded as a continuous journey of discovery. The industry has come a long way to reach where we are now. The industry has reached a point in their journey and are stagnating instead of moving forward to reach its goal (i.e. adoption of a true IPM). The point where the industry has reached and which is causing stagnation is the so called &quote;soft option&quote; IPM