There are significant price and profitability challenges for Australian cotton at present and likely into the future. Changes at all levels of the production and processing steps can address the challenges and it will be best if all contribute some innovation. As plant breeders we recognise our responsibility and this paper discusses some of the technical challenges for progress and presents some likely new varieties and traits which may become available in the short to medium term.

The paper is organised to provide some background on the cotton industry and its linkages to regional economies. Attention then turns to the tasks of building the economic capacity of cotton communities.

Within cotton catchment communities a significant proportion of the population is Aboriginal and this proportion is increasing, within a wider community trend towards depopulation of rural Australia1. The long term economic viability of such rural communities - including their ability to sustain a labour supply for rural agribusiness - is therefore linked to the use and enhancement of the Aboriginal social and cultural capital within them

A collaborative research project involving NSW DPI and QDPI&F through the Cotton Catchment Communities CRC has commenced to evaluate the potential for aquaculture on cotton farms. The objectives of the NSW DPI component of the project are to: (i) determine optimal culture conditions (stocking density, diets, cage size and shape) for silver perch; (ii) identify cotton farms and infrastructure with potential for fish culture; (iii) evaluate the feasibility and economics of silver perch cultured in cages using on-farm trials; (iv) determine appropriate fish culture strategies for use on cotton farms. Successful integration of silver perch farming will provide cotton farmers with a diversification that adds significant value to irrigation water, and increases the efficiency of water use and environmental sustainability. Involvement of the highly professional cotton industry could provide the infrastructure and associated skill base to provide a new production platform for silver perch and lead to increased production.

The skin or epidermis of a plant is its outward face to the World and buffers it from changes in temperature and humidity; protects it against threats such as pests and pathogens; helps it extract nutrients from the air and soil and even assists it to disperse its seeds into new and hopefully more favourable places to grow. Many plants have evolved specialized epidermal cells (Figure 1) for some of these functions and scientists are starting to unravel at a detailed molecular level the processes that allow the cells in the plant's skin to develop these specialized roles relative to the adjacent cells that are just the bricks and mortar of the plant (Larkin et al., 2003). Cotton is no different and has developed all sorts of specialized hairs that cover the plants leaves, stems, petioles, petals and roots, but it is the very long hairs on the seeds that first attracted man's interest in cotton and these have driven the domestication and widespread adoption of cotton as a premier agricultural crop for fibre production for textiles.

In 2005-06 we began investigations comparing the yield and maturity response of 38 cm (15') row spacings and conventionally spaced cotton while attempting to manage the two row spacings for Pix and nitrogen management separately. The 38 cm row spaced cotton did not need to be managed differently to the conventionally spaced crop in any of the three experiments for this season. In one of the three experiments the 38 cm spaced cotton had higher yield than conventionally spaced cotton. Research is continuing to understand how 38 cm row spaced cotton systems can be managed to give yield or maturity benefits.

Surface irrigation, especially furrow irrigation, is one of the most commonly used methods for irrigating crops and pastures in Australia and around the world. Well-designed and managed surface irrigation systems can have application efficiencies of up to 95%. But many commercial systems have been found to be operating with lower and highly variable efficiencies. For example, in sugar and cotton application efficiencies for individual irrigations range from 14 to 90% and average efficiencies over the season range from 31 and 62% (Raine and Bakker 1996; Smith et al. 2005).

This study evaluates the physiological responses of fourteen cotton genotypes under waterlogged and non-waterlogged irrigated conditions in relation to leaf nutrient level, leaf colour, leaf photosynthesis, plant morphology and final yield.

BollgardII accumulated yield faster than conventional cotton due to higher retention combined with a very low proportion of tipped plants. This meant that late in flowering and at cut-out BollgardII was less able to compensate for water stress equal to a depletion of =120mm of soil water (= 58% plant available soil water) and yields were lower relative to conventional cotton stressed at the same time., *Yields and soil water extraction of BollgardII and conventional cotton were the same when moisture stress occurred at early flowering., *With full irrigation, that is soil water deficits of 44 to 83 mm, BollgardII had the same yield or higher yield than conventional cotton but matured earlier due to more rapid boll setting., *Future research will aim to optimise irrigation scheduling of BollgardII for yield and water use efficiency

Soil moisture extraction under fully irrigated conditions was the same in BollgardII and conventional varieties, except where season length allowed later crop and leaf growth in the conventional variety. *BollgardII grown under fully irrigated conditions maintained a yield advantage and required 6.3ML/ha of irrigation water as opposed to 7.0ML/ha for the conventional full irrigation treatment. *A greater reduction in water use efficiency was apparent in BollgardII where moisture stress was experienced at or close to cut-out, except where late season rainfall alleviated this stress.