The Supporting Southern Cotton Production project (DAN2001) was established in 2019 to research production issues identified from the agronomic information in grower surveys conducted by a previous project (DAN1701) over the 2016 and 2017 seasons. The survey found that cotton establishment and replanting remained the most difficult management challenges in the Southern 
valleys, with 30% seedling mortality and replanting outside the 2-week planting window resulting in a yield loss of 1–2 bales/ha. Other major influencing factors around these challenges included soil temperature, hot and cold shocks, seed depth at planting, irrigation water temperature and soilborne diseases in back-to-back cotton.
Operating alongside the Supporting Southern Cotton Production project was the Southern Cotton Crop Protection project (DAN1903). It was established in 2018 to address the crop protection issues faced by southern cotton growers and provide disease and invertebrate pest research and development expertise to the expanding Southern cotton industry. Real and perceived disease and insect threats to Southern grown cotton identified at the time included its relatively short production window, a high proportion of back-to-back or short rotations with cotton, a lack of southern specific management guidelines, and strong drivers towards continued high pesticide use with new growers being unfamiliar with cotton physiology and many relatively inexperienced 
consultants, primarily working for resellers, making crop protection recommendations, The two projects were merged in 2020 under DAN2001. All milestones for both projects were retained.