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The Australian cotton industry: a scientist’s perspective

October 19, 2006

Gregg.thumb.JPGPeter Gregg grew up on a Narrabri cotton farm during the infancy of the cotton industry in Australia. Now one of the nation’s leading cotton scientists, he will trace the development of that industry – and look into its future – in a public lecture in Armidale next week.

The title of the lecture – “The Australian cotton industry and its pests: past, present and future” – gives an indication of Professor Gregg’s main scientific interest in the industry: pest management. His early experience led him to realise that a management strategy based simply on pesticides would not be viable in the long term.

After gaining Honours and Master’s degrees in Rural Science from The University of New England he decided to investigate the ecology of insect pests, and successfully conducted PhD research in this field at the Australian National University. In 1980 he returned to UNE as a lecturer; since then, his teaching and research have focused on agricultural ecology, crop protection, and insect pest management. His “Inaugural Lecture” in Armidale Town Hall at 6 pm on Tuesday 24 October will celebrate his recent promotion to the position of Professor within UNE’s School of Rural Science and Agriculture. The lecture is free, and everyone is welcome.

Professor Gregg’s research has resulted in an innovative approach to the control of insect pests on cotton farms. He led the research team that developed MAGNET, a commercial product that allows the selective poisoning (using only small amounts of insecticide) of destructive Helicoverpa moths while leaving other, beneficial insects unharmed. Last year this work won the research team an Award for Excellence in Innovation from the Cooperative Research Centres Association. Professor Gregg’s other major awards include the 2004 “Cotton Researcher of the Year” award from the Australian Cotton Growers Research Association.

Professor Gregg (pictured here) is seconded to the Cotton Catchment Communities Cooperative Research Centre (Cotton CRC), based in Narrabri, as Chief Scientist.

His lecture will follow the remarkable growth of the Australian cotton industry from its beginnings in the 1960s to its current status as the third-largest cotton exporter in the world. Looking into the future, with its challenge of climate change and the possibility of continuing drought, he will discuss scenarios such as the development of cotton farming in northern Australia. “The future all depends on water,” he says – a constraint that has reduced this year’s national crop to 30 per cent of its potential in a “good year”.

His audience will gain insight into a technologically advanced industry that now boasts a higher yield than that of any other cotton-growing country in the world and a crop that, through genetic modification, is increasingly insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant. “There is a future for cotton,” he says. That future will rest firmly on the pioneering work of Peter Gregg and his colleagues.

UNE Spring Lecture Series 2006. On Wednesday 25 October - the day after Professor Gregg's lecture - UNE will present another free public lecture in Armidale Town Hall. Professor Stephen Glover's Inaugural Lecture, titled "Chemicals, cancer, causes and cures", will begin at 7.30 pm. (Full report in next posting.)

Posted by Jim Scanlan at October 19, 2006 09:31 AM