The cotton industry has adopted a very intensive and multiform approach to human capital formation across the industry over many years. These investments cover the full gamut of activities across schools, the university and vocational systems, workforce development, training, extension services and community engagement. They are being undertaken in the context provided by the Cotton Australia Strategic Plan 2013-2018 (Enabling systems related to Human Resource Management and capacity building) and the Cotton Industry Vision 2029 (People - knowledge and Skills; Succession).
The aim of this strategy is to ensure that the cotton industry has the people with the right skills, experience and capabilities to drive industry competitiveness now and through time.
The scope of the strategy is limited to on farm capability and capacity. It considers educational and training systems and supply chain issues only to the extent that they impact skills and labour availability on-farm. It does not explicitly consider broader agricultural programs and initiatives that also benefit the cotton industry.
Workforce development (WFD) can be defined as the actions taken to improve productivity and achieve high performance by enhancing workplace organisation and increasing the capacity of workers. This has a focus on the enterprise and its performance, but also has social dimensions for individual employees, learners, other industries and regions.
Business capability and leadership skills are the most important elements of WFD strategy. They define the business and the context for all the other elements, and therefore deserve stronger emphasis in planning.
Many enterprises in the food and fibre industries do not recognise the need for high quality WFD. There is often an emphasis on training alone, with poor needs diagnosis and little consideration of where this fits in with whole-of-enterprise business needs.
Australia is a relatively small cotton producer on a global scale and is reliant on exports with over 99% of ginned cotton exported. It is the third largest exporter of cotton globally. Trading conditions for Australian growers have fluctuated over the past five years due to increased volatility on the global cotton market. Erratic swings on global prices, prolonged drought conditions and floods have also affected revenue. These factors pushed up the cost of growing cotton and forced smaller, less-viable operators out of the industry. There are between 800 and 1,200 cotton farms in Australia depending on seasonal conditions.
Individual cotton farms are generally small employers. Cotton growers employ an average of 6.6 people per farm. By this measure, around 8,000 people were employed on farm with 4 500 of those located in NSW and 3 500 located in QLD.
The industry has labour and skills shortages across low and higher skilled categories. Local labour is difficult to source, particularly post drought (expansion phase). A poor season(s) in one region will see a few essential staff retained as those employees and, often, family members taking on an increasing burden of work. In another region a good season will see a return to significant labour and skills gaps.
Farm production now utilises far more technology and complex machinery to drive productivity growth, and these changes have placed a higher value on technical skills, which is putting upward pressure on wages.
The once pyramid-shaped workforce comprising owners and a mass of low level operators is becoming diamond in shape as technology and automation continues to remove low-skilled job roles and creates a need for a new breed of skilled workers or technicians. Contractors therefore make up a significant proportion of the cotton industry workforce.
While these projections signal challenges, growers will still be aiming, to produce the highest yielding crop allowable at the time with the labour force economically allowable. This will mean working smarter with a smaller number, though more highly skilled workers.
