The markets are demanding what markets always demand - satisfaction of the customer at the lowest possible price. The cotton textile industry is composed of a series of manufacturing stages, each of which has the next stage as its customer. We are all ultimately driven by the final customer - ourselves, as consumers of textile products in the form of clothing, domestic textiles such as sheets, towels, curtains, upholstery, and various other cotton products

My idea today, with Australian farmers achieving the highest yield in the world, is that fibre quality has to be addressed almost separately to yield. I also believe most fibre characteristics , with our current varieties , can be controlled by farm management with a thorough knowledge of plant physiology and environmental adaptation.

With the advent of new molecular genetic techniques, it is now possible to identify the particular pathogen strain in an outbreak of plant disease, to characterise it, and potentially, to isolate genes associated with pathogenicity. Similarly, such techniques can also be employed to differentiate between plant cultivars and progeny in plant breeding programs and in the identification of genes implicated in improved plant tolerance to diseases. The sensitivity of these techniques rests in their ability to detect the rare or subtle differences that exist between the genes of one individual and another. In the present investigation, we have applied Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA {RAPD) -PCR and gene cloning techniques to strains of V. dahliae isolated from cotton plants. and to cotton cultivars tolerant to Verticillium wilt, with the aim of achieving a better understanding of this pathogenic disease in cotton.

Quality of fiber has long been a concern to textile mills. Growing areas such as the San Joaquin Valley in California have historically been paid a premium for consistently high quality. As mill mechanization has increased, so has the demand for high quality fibers. Classing of cotton has demonstrated that within a bale of cotton there is variation in fiber quality.

Funds tor Ivan Kennedy and steven Kimber to attend Australian cotton conference 1992

The aims of this project, viz: (i) To purchase an item of equipment necessary for the extraction and analyses of allelochemicals present in cotton varieties under evaluation for their rcsi~tance to insect pests (ii) To enhance the future biochemical capabilities of NARS

Funded by the Cotton Research and Development Corporation under the general topic "Physical and Chemical Studies of Cotton Fibre Maturity", the project has focused on searching for links between the morphological structure of the cotton fibre and its measured maturity.

CRDC project UNE15C provided for travel to Perth for The International Symposium on the Management of mycorrhizas in Agriculture, Horticulture and Forestry. This five day symposium presented information on current trends and achievements in international mycorrhizal research. Discussions concerning CRDC project UNE7C were held with other researchers. In particular, Dr Horst Marschner from Hohenheim University in Germany has subsequently provided unpublished information on a disease of 'grapes which has some similarities to the Galathera syndrome. A poster outlining some of the research from project UNE7C was presented at the symposium,

A workshop convened by the Cooperative Research Centre for Tropical Pest Management at Narrabri on 7-8 December 1992 examined the feasibility, benefits, and funding implications of providing an operational forecasting service for heliothis. The workshop participants represented grower organisations, insecticide suppliers, pest-control services, and rural-industry research funding bodies, along with state-government, CSIRO, and university scientists. 2. The workshop focussed especially on the question of forecasting spring infestations of the native budworm Helicoverpa punctigera, a serious pest of various legume crops (especially lupins in Western Australia and field peas in Victoria), and the main early-season pest of cotton. It is now known that these infestations are initiated by immigrants from the far inland, where a research programme now approaching completion has located very large numbers of caterpillars on native vegetation during 3 of the last 4 winters. These inland populations emerge as moths in August-September, and are carried into cropping regions by the wind; damage is caused either by the offspring of these moths (in legume crops), or by the subsequent (second} generation (in cotton)

Despite the broad title, the project has concentrated on transverse dimensions of fibres, notably maturity in all of its aspects. There is no consensus about the definition of maturity, only a rough idea of what it means to the cotton market and to spinning mills and dyeing plants. Consequently, he has tested a range of 59 cottons, or in some instances a selection of 14