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Big increase in Australian cotton crop predicted

October 13, 2004

There will be an overall increase of about 70 per cent in the area of Australia’s next cotton crop, currently being planted. In some regions, up to 90 per cent of that crop will be the new genetically-modified cotton Bollgard II.

These are two of the main findings of a survey of agronomic consultants conducted last week by the University of New England’s Institute for Rural Futures (IRF) on behalf of Cotton Consultants Australia (CCA).

The Director of IRF Cotton Research, Brendan Doyle, said the Australian crop next season would be about 300,000 hectares (compared to 181,000 hectares last season). “This increase is particularly welcome as an economic stimulus for the cotton regions and a much-needed boost to the nation’s agricultural output,” Mr Doyle said. “If there is significant rain throughout October the area of plantings could be even greater than predicted, while a lack of such rain would result in an area slightly smaller than that predicted.”

He said the use of GM cotton had led to significant reductions in the use of insecticides on cotton crops. “Bollgard varieties will form the major part of next season’s cotton crop overall,” he said. “However, the percentage varies greatly between regions, the uptake ranging between 15 and 90 per cent. Growers have been successfully trialling the technology over the past couple of seasons and, as further varieties are released, adoption will stabilise.”

Mr Doyle emphasised that Bollgard II was just another tool that Australia’s cotton farmers were using to reduce the application of chemicals. “Data collected over the past 12 years by CCA show how crop management practices such as Integrated Pest Management (IPM) have achieved a big degrease in chemical use generally, and reveal a wide adoption of softer chemicals that preserve beneficial insects such as ladybirds and parasitic wasps in the crop,” he said.

Detailed data about next season, such as valley-by-valley information on expected plantings (including areas of Bollgard and conventional cotton, and Roundup Ready proportions), are available from Cotton Consultants Australia, Narrabri, on (02) 6792 5459.

Media contact: Brendan Doyle, Institute for Rural Futures, UNE (02) 6773 3077 (e-mail Brendan.Doyle@une.edu.au), or Jim Scanlan, Public Relations, UNE (02) 6773 3049.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at October 13, 2004 10:59 AM