World cotton production for 2000/2001 cotton year (I'' August - 3 1'' July) is expected to be around 87-88 million bales. World consumption is expected to be around 90 million bales. Two thirds or around 60 million bales of the global crop will not be exported, but consumed by the producing country. This puts world trade (country to country movements of raw cotton) at around 27 million bales annually. Why is this such a vital statistic for AustraliaΓ Because Australia this year will have to export 94% of its total raw cotton production. Australian domestic consumption of raw cotton remains below 200,000 bales per annum, so with no large domestic market and no Government subsidy schemes, every additional bale produced by Australian farmers has to find a home in another country. With no protective price buffer and no economical way of carrying stock every bale has to be sold under very competitive quality and price scenarios and without the subsidies many of our competitors are receiving in one form or another. To further break down the export trade of raw cotton into broad quality groups, we start to gain an appreciation of where Australian cotton fits in the global market.

Pesticides provide essential protection in the production of many agricultural commodities. However, increasing pesticide use as a result of increased production has led to community concern about the social and environmental impacts of pesticide residues. Of particular concern is the contamination of irrigation run-off and drainage water, agricultural soils and horticultural products.

When David Swallow rang and asked if l would present this paper my first thoughts were &quote;Why would you pick on me?&quote; I'm 54 years old, nearly as old as my farm. I'm flat out looking after my own health let alone my soil. Then it occurred to me that there are a lot of similarities in maintaining soil health and the way I go about maintaining my own health. The soil is a living organism, just like me, so if you want it to perform, you must be prepared to spend some money and time on it. When I purchased Mayfield some 21 years ago it didn't take me long to realise that it was in pretty bad shape. It was one of the first farms in the area to use ground water for flood irrigation. For some 35 years this was its only means of irrigation. I built the first dam on this property in 1984. At that time I basically knocked everything down and, starting from scratch, redeveloped the farm so that all fields could be watered and drained quickly and all run-off recycled back to the dam. Now we could mix some overland flow water with the high sodium salt ground water. This eased the burden of salinity in our soil. Over the next few years we could see our soil structure, with the help of gypsum, was improving. Our heavy box clay soil was more like &quote;chewing gum&quote; now- a big improvement from &quote;araldite&quote; which is the word I had previously used to describe it. Unfortunately the price of gypsum today in the Dalby area has made this option less attractive than it was some years ago. Gypsum works well but, unfortunately, economics also comes into the story of maintaining soil health.

This paper is based on my views and experiences from the four Area Wide IP M Groups in the Macintyre Valley. These groups cover the majority of the irrigated cotton from Yetman to just east of Boomi. There are 72 farms and 9 consultants in these groups covering 34669 Ha

I am an irrigation farmer, very reliant on the security of water for my livelihood; I am very concerned with the pressure on the long-term availability of water for irrigated agriculture. There is not doubt that the value of water will escalate rapidly as we enter the twenty-first century. Competition from four areas will pressure the value and reliability for water. These areas are Environment, Urban, Industrial and Agricultural. Of these four, Irrigated Agriculture, while placing the highest demand for water, has the least ability to pay. No one disagrees that we need to find the balance between the use of water for Urban, Industrial and Agriculture, and an allocation for the environment. To this end, Government bodies are pointing to water users that we need to be looking at efficiencies in our use and application of this finite resource

For our industry to have a more secure future, free of further restrictive government legislation, we need to have all growers operating their farms at a high management standard. Educating growers, staff, consultants, ground-rig operators and aerial spraying contractors is the obvious way forward. BMP adoption with its accreditation process will, I believe help bring all growers u to a level of management that is demanded by our communities and government. A proven track record of improvement in all aspects of cotton production is what we are seeking.

Fusarium wilt continues to be an increasing problem in almost all major cotton growing regions of Australia. The severe impact of the disease is a major concern due to the absence or low resistance to this disease in most cotton cultivars. Control of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp vasinfectum (Fov), presents a key challenge to researchers and breeders, particularly with the difficulty involved in the reduction of disease loads in infected soils. Since the appearance of Fov in 1992 there is a pressing need to identify resistance/antifungal genes in either Gossypium or other plant species that can be transferred to elite cultivars. We identified a protein called NaDl which protects the flowers of the ornamental Tobacco, Nicotiana alata from damage by fungal pathogens (Lay et al. 2002). The protein is a member of the plant defensin family, a group of small, cystsine-rich proteins with anti-microbial activity. NaDl inhibits the spore germination and hyphal growth of Fov in in-vitro assays (fig. I). The gene coding for NaDl has been cloned (Lay et al. 2002) and transferred into cotton.

International cotton prices, as measured by the Cotlook A Index, fluctuated around 60 Us cents per pound in May and June 2000, marking a 16-cent recovery in 6 months. With the planting in the Northern Hemisphere, which accounts for 93% of world production, virtually complete, world demand is the factor that will drive prices to new levels over the next 14 months as it did during the first part of this calendar year. With less than two months before the end of the 1999/2000 crop year, the Cotlook A Index is averaging 52 cents per pound. With demand for cotton expected to grow more rapidly than production next season, world ending stocks will likely reach a five-year-low and the Cotlook A Index is expected to exceed 60 cents per pound in 2000/01. In 1999/00, prices declined for the fifth year. In 1995/96 and 1996/97 prices declined due to increased production. Scant growth of demand in 1997-1999 and larger production (in relation to price levels) contributed to further downward pressures on prices. One factor that is likely to have contributed to lower prices is the level of direct subsidies provided to cotton production. In 1998/99, as international prices deteriorated, direct subsidies to production increased. The level of direct assistance to production worldwide increased from Us$3.7 billion in 1997/98 to Us$4.7 billion in 1998/99. Despite efforts to remove agricultural subsidies, cotton growers in 8 countries received direct government assistance in 1998/99. A partial simulation that utilizes a version of the ICAC Price Model and a measure of the supply elasticity for the USA developed by the FAO and ICAC suggests that the average Cotlook A Index would have been 3 cents higher in 1999/00 and could be 6 cents higher than currently expected in 2000/01. Nonetheless, it should be noted that the simulation does not include the full response of other producing countries to higher prices.

You may or may not be aware that lain a member of the ITMF Spinners Committee. This Committee is made up of spinners from twelve different countries that represent over 70% of the total world consumption of cotton. It was established in 1985 and identified the following priorities as the major objectives for future work:-

Fusarium wilt of cotton, caused by the soil-borne fungus - Fusarium oxysporum formae specialis vasinfectum (Fov), is a worldwide disease of great economic importance. In Australia, it was first reported in 1993 in the Brookstead and Cecil Plans areas in the Darling Downs of Queensland (Kochman et al 1995). Now found in almost all major Australian cotton growing regions, Fusarium wilt has become a serious problem, causing substantial losses. Australian Fov strains have been demonstrated to be genetically distinct from all the overseas isolates screened to date (unpublished data). One possible explanation is that it is indigenous, previously occurring saprophytically in soil or parasitically on alternative hosts, and has recently arisen as a cotton pathogen as a consequence of unintentional selection for pathogenicity under cotton monoculture or host shifting. There are 17 native Gossypium species or wild cottons in Australia, four of which (G. australe, G. bickii, G. nelsonii, G. sturtianum) are widely distributed in the eastern and central areas where the major cotton-growing regions are located. As the closest relatives to the cultivated cottons, these native Gossypium species might have been associated with the Fov strains now present in the cotton-growing regions for a long period either by providing preferable habitats or acting as alternative hosts. In this study we aimed to determine whether there are any Fusarium wilt pathogens (Fov) occurring in association with these native Gossypium species. Furthermore, we also asked whether these native cottons are infected by other Fusarium species that in turn may be potential future threats to the cotton industry.