The cotton industry is challenged with attracting and retaining core staff, on-farm labour, and access to professional advisers and service providers. This project is a strategy to link the cotton industry with schools, education organisations, government agencies and industry bodies to promote science and agriculture, particularly cotton. It links with other industry investments in education, development and delivery to attract, develop and retain skilled people in the cotton industry.

Why are disease surveys important? Surveys are conducted by pathologists to monitor the distribution and importance of key endemic pests and record the presence or absence of new or exotic diseases. DAFF Qld has identified new strains of the pathogens that cause Fusarium and Verticillium wilt, two boll rots and reniform nematode. The impact of these findings on cotton production varies. Early detection is important so that management strategies can be implicated as soon as possible.

Question/issue being addressed? Continued pressure on oil price affects cotton production because it is a highly mechanised and high-input crop that relies heavily on diesel, fertilisers, chemicals and water. Increased greenhouse emissions and global warming places further limits on water, land, energy and other resources and meeting the demands of an expanding world population is becoming increasingly difficult. There is scientific certainty that climate change is real; the exact impacts of this are not fully understood.

Careful management is needed if row crops are to be established after rice crops. It will take about 18 months for the soil to be suitable for row crops after the conversion of rice layouts to a row crop layout. Growing a row crop in the season after a rice crop can result in poor crop growth because of several factors - especially due to rice stubble disorder.

The frequency and severity of potassium (K) deficiency symptoms in cotton on the highly productive clay soils in Texas have increased in recent years. Two locations with low to medium soil K levels were chosen for these trials. Four rates of injected liquid K and four rates of dry broadcast K were evaluated. Plant growth measurements, yield, and quality were recorded. Visual K deficiency symptoms were observed in the low rates of broadcast K. The injected K yields were significantly higher than the broadcast applications. Micronaire values increased with increasing injected K rates, while other fiber qualities were not impacted.

The Australian cotton industry has used values of Gross Production Water Use Index (GPWUIfarm) to benchmark water use efficiency since 1988/89. GPWUIfarm for 2006- 07 and 2008-09 were 1.17 and 1.14 bales/ML, and both seasons had reduced plantings, low water availability and cotton prices. In contrast, for 2012-13, which saw record planting and full production, the GPWUIfarm was 1.12 bales/ML. There was no significant difference in GPWUIfarm between the three seasons indicating the cotton industry is performing as water efficient in years of full production. Variation in GPWUIfarm between farms indicates the scope for further efficiency gains

Australian cotton is now dominated by transgenic (Bt) varieties, which provides a strong platform for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) of key pests such as Helicoverpa spp. This now means though that new selective IPM products are required to manage the development of resistance in Helicoverpa spp. to transgenic cotton and the control of emerging and secondary pests, especially sucking insects. A 10 year study looking at organ surfaces of plants identified Clitoria ternatea plants as having compounds that deter feeding, oviposition which are toxic and do not support the development of Helicoverpa spp. and other sucking pests on cotton plants. In collaboration with Innovate Agriculture Pty Ltd, these compounds have been developed into a product (Sero X) that is effective on Helicoverpa spp., Bemisia tabaci (silverleaf whiteflies) and Creontiades dilutus (green mirids) with minimal impact on beneficial insects, and is in the advanced stages of commercialisation for use in the cotton industry.

The project will investigate the impact of land management practices (tillage, stubble management, crop rotation) on carbon losses through terrestrial pathways such as runoff, erosion, and leaching. Knowledge on carbon loss by soil erosion will assist in determining accurate carbon budget for cotton farming system

Cotton gin trash (CGT) collected from Australian cotton gins was evaluated for bioethanol production. A detailed compositional profiling of CGT reveals variation between ginning samples and a unique profile consisting of elevated extractive fractions (26-28%), lignins (17- 22%) and holocellulose (41-51%). Process conditions for converting CGT to fermentable sugars were experimentally optimised using multifactorial experimental designs. Process optimisation revealed CGT fibre required pretreatment at 180 degrees C in 0.8% H2SO4 for 12 min to maximise glucose recoveries by enzymatic cellulose hydrolysis. The highest ethanol productivity by yeast fermentations yielded 147 L ethanol/ metric tonne

Research suggests that farmers' economic behaviour and productivity is predicted by their personality traits (Austin, Deary, & Willock, 2001; Willock et al., 1999). Given cotton is a "highrisk" crop, the implications of this research are significant; yet, there is no body of research that discerns the key motivational factors of a cotton growers and farm employees. Knowledge of the motivational factors is needed to inform the development of a workforce strategy for cotton and to develop interventions that support growers. Toward that end, this paper provides an outline of a social cognitive model of cotton grower and employee motivations