The cotton industry has a reputation of being forward thinking, generous with knowledge, encouraging and inclusive. The same can (largely) be said for the reality and perception of the role and value of women in the industry. Women who are both farm based and involved in the industry, whether it is in a professional and engagement capacity, are generally well represented and well engaged.

The Cotton Research and Development Corporation, through Wincott, undertook this project to better

understand the roles and contribution women make to all facets of the cotton industry. Four points of contact, resulting in a sample size of 298, were used to understand the role, level of engagement and interests of women working in both farm based and industry roles. The demographic of women is varied with ages ranging from students less than 20 years to retirees over 65 ranging from North Queensland to the Victoria border along the eastern coast of Australia. In general, women are highly educated, and juggle many concurrent roles – with varying percentage of their “professional” time spent in a cotton business.

This project quantified the valuable contribution women make to all facets of farm based and industry

businesses; with specific focus on “business” and “people” areas, and to a lesser extent, “production” and “industry” areas. There are many factors or barriers that impact the contribution women make to both their business and the industry at large, none more than the many and varied roles they hold concurrently in their lives leading to a genuine competition for time to commit. Roles outside the core cotton business, lack of confidence, experience, skills and knowledge are lesser barriers to engagement. While half of all women are interested in increasing their level of engagement, most are happy with their current role. The reality of the fore-mentioned barriers makes change unrealistic for most respondents.

Consistent with being time poor, women find the most efficient and effective way to receive information is electronically. Face to face activities that deliver technical information to improve business or life will be prioritised based on need. Similarly social or networking activities are more valuable with delivery of technical information.

Many roles women hold are those which are “assumed” rather than “chosen”. To this end, there is a strong appetite for personal and professional development around the areas women are already involved in such as business and finance. There is also an interest in production related information so women can better understand and be more involved in conversation that happens “in the paddock”. Consistent with confidence and experience being a barrier to engagement, there is strong interest in improving interpersonal skills; such as communication, leadership and public speaking.

This report demonstrates that women involved in the cotton industry generally feel accepted and engaged, but are always looking for growth and change and a creative and efficient way to “do things better”.

In this edition of Spotlight we outline some of CRDC's landmark research and development (R&D) investments that are addressing major challenges in the cotton industry, including spray drift and textile waste. The spray hazard warning system towers – now known as WAND towers – are now up and running in Queensland. The towers represent six years of planning, research and collaboration between the cotton and grains industries, chiefly the team at GRDC, to help reduce the instance and minimise the impact of drift. The WAND network, which is being delivered by Goanna Ag, represents the single largest investment in CRDC history. During the R&D phase, GRDC and CRDC-supported researchers developed the first and only reliable and accurate method to determine when hazardous inversions are present. This is a major development and is indicative of what we can achieve when we work together. WAND is now operational in QLD and is being rolled out in NSW: we encourage all growers and spray contractors to connect to WAND today. CRDC is also ramping up its investment in textile waste projects to ensure cotton can play its part in closing the circularity loop. With Cotton Australia, CRDC has a mandate through the PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK Sustainability Framework to create a more sustainable industry, and at the same time, this research is also potentially creating a feedstock for growers to return to their fields. The involvement of growers is vital to testing the process: Scott Morgan of Gunnedah has come on board this season, with Sam Coulton of Goondiwindi continuing on from last season. The circularity R&D has a natural fit with research into soil health and the holistic management of soil as the largest living organism on the planet.

Disease Surveys. Commercial cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) fields in the Mcintyre, Gwydir, Namol and Macquarie valleys of New South Wales were inspected in November and March each season. Commercial fields in the Bourke area were also inspected during March surveys. The incidence and severity of bacterial blight on Deltapine cultivars has been significantly reduced in recent years. The disease was not observed during the November 1991 survey. Verticillium wilt was present in a significant proportion of the fields inspected in all areas. The disease was most prevalent in crops in the Namoi valley where it was present in over 90% of crops and where the mean incidence for the last three seasons has been over 25%. The increasing incidence of verticillium wilt in individual fields that have been surveyed on several occasions during the last six seasons is of particular con cern. Seed/seedling losses have varied from 27.5% in the 1991/92 season to 41. 2% in 1989 /90 with the greatest losses occurring in the Macquarie Valley. The incidence of Phytophthora boll rot has generally been low although wet conditions in February 1990 resulted in a mean incidence of 2 .67% with up to 26% of bolls affected in one crop. Alternaria leaf spot was rarely observed in New South Wales with the exception of some isolated areas. The disease was regularly observed causing some defoliation late in the season in crops on the property 'Red Mill' north-east of Moree. Low infestations of Alternaria leaf spot are often seen in the Maules Creek area east of Narrabri and the disease was also observed on crops of 'Pima' in the Bourke area in February 1992. Over recent years and in most gin yards there h as been an increasing occurrence of module rot associated with the entry of water into the module - especially around tarp ropes. The seed cotton becomes discoloured and a species of Coprinus (the 'inky cap' mushrooms} is often present.

SUMMARY We have generated an antibody which is absolutely specific for H. armigera over H. punctigera. Specificity has been demonstrated in a number of ways. For example, the antigenic protein from H. armigera and its homologue from H. punctigera were purified and probed with the kit MAb. No detectable reaction was observed against H. puncti.gera under conditions where a very strong reaction was observed versus the H. armigera protein. The experiments indicate that a very high level of species-specificity is an inherent property of the kit antibody. We have incorporated the anti.body into a prototype ID kit which has now been tested under field conditions. The kit is not yet of commercial quality and reliability. Nevertheless, for eggs collected from the field at a single time and place, there is a high correlation between the % H. armigera detennined by the kit and as determined by rearing (Trowell et al. 1992). This indicates that the basic design of the kit is sound and further development is worthwhile. We are working on reliability problems which have been thrown up in the field tests and have made significant progress in overcoming them. The problems are of the kind normally encountered in development of this type of test kit Together with a partner experienced in immunodiagnostic production, we expect to be able to produce a kit of commercial quality

To develop, validate and implement a regional model of Helicoverpa population dynamics which considers the abundance, movement, oviposition, development and mortality of H.armigera and H.punctigera on all major hosts within a given region. The purpose is to provide an interactive simulation model which can predict the regional dynamics of Helicoverpa populations in response to climatic, biotic, and agronomic conditions.