Australia maintains its freedom from many serious plant pests by devoting considerable resources to plant biosecurity. It’s a status that, while often taken for granted, benefits all Australians. Our unique ecosystems, vigorous plant production industries, high standard of social amenity and rural way of life are sustained by the system.

The National Plant Biosecurity Status Report documents the pest species that pose a significant threat to our nation and charts the efforts of the government, industry, research and community partners in maintaining and strengthening the plant biosecurity system.

This year, the content of the report has been rearranged to better reflect the multiple contributions that stakeholders make to maintain the integrity of the system – the plant biosecurity partnership. Activities are set out in accordance with the system’s three layers of protection: pre-border, at the border and post-border.

Setting the content out in this way emphasises the role of everyday Australians as they go about their daily activities. Each of us has a role to play in keeping unwanted pests from spreading to and within Australia and it is hoped that the new format will assist in raising understanding of shared responsibility.

The final chapter of the book collates and analyses the 700 scientific projects being carried out at multiple institutions around the country. It is included in a chapter of its own since scientific knowledge underpins all layers of biosecurity in Australia. Each project sheds light on some aspect of plant or bee biosecurity that will inform better management of pests and crop production. The data is more robust this year, due to the use of an improved data collection technique.

Throughout the book the reader will find feature articles, which make apparent the significance of all of this activity. Examples of how the system works in specific circumstances brings the system to life.

This 2017 edition has been developed from some 90 contributions from plant biosecurity stakeholders. PHA is grateful for the cooperation that allows its publication.ational Plant Biosecurity RD&E Strategy

• Endorsed by PIMC December 2013

• Implementation Committee formed August 2014

• Cross sectorial strategy so no direct RDC to report to

• PHA provides Chair, Strategy Leader and Executive

Officer

Plant Biosecurity RD&E Strategy links to:

• Other AGSOC National Primary Industries RD&E

Framework

sector & cross sectoral strategies

• National Plant Biosecurity Strategy

• Intergovernmental Agreement on Biosecurity Schedule 8

• Environmental Biosecurity Strategy – links with weeds

and environmental pests

• National Fruit Fly Strategy

• Other relevant plant RD&E committees

A cross sectoral approach to biosecurity has led to collaborative funding and quarterly meetings by the Implementation Committee to develop a Strategic and Annual Operating Plan, reporting status of biosecurity concerns, activities and actions within Australia agricultureThe recent announcement relating to the seven plant RDCs provides an opportunity for the RDCs to better manage collaborative cross sectorial arrangements in plant biosecurity RD&E. Following from 2016/17, with tthe appointment of an independent chair and a program director employed by the RDCs, the PHA continues to be focused on the development and coordination of plant biosecurity research, development and extension activities. In addition, this role will provide a coordination link between the RDCs committee, the AGSOC R&I committee and the work undertaken by the National Biosecurity Committee who have now established a focus on plant biosecurity RD&E. The RDC committee provides a single point of contact for the AGSOC Plant Biosecurity Committee and will enable cross sectorial opportunities to be considered by all RDCs. Examples of this include the outcomes of the whitefly and transmitted viruses and diagnostic workshop outputs.

The three day Australian Cotton Research Conference provides a platform for cotton researchers to present and discuss concepts, key issues and the latest findings in research relevant to the Australian cotton industry. The conference is also encouraging networking and collaborations which provides valuable opportunities for information transfer between the agronomist/crop consultancy network and research community.

The three day conference will include plenary lectures from renowned speakers, research talks within a range of themes, and some interactive sessions for debating concepts derived from the talks of that day.

This travel sponsorship enabled two agronomists to attend the 2017 Australian Cotton Research Conference. The conference has a diverse program including an emphasis on the first day on how digital technologies are beginning to impact on how cotton is bred, studied and managed. Digital technologies was also a focus at the recent Crop Consultants Australia seminar.

Irrigation is a key component of cotton production in Australian agriculture, where increasing pressures of water scarcity requires growers to improve their water use efficiency. Monitoring of soil water deficits is a key component of maintaining optimal irrigation management. A number of technologies have been provided over the years to allow irrigators to monitor and predict soil water to better time their irrigation applications. This study compared four different methodologies for measuring and predicting soil water status within an irrigated cotton system. A Neutron Moisture Meter (NMM) device was calibrated to gravimetric soil water measurements. The calibrated NMM readings were then compared to an EM38 device, crop-modelling software HydroLOGIC, and remote-sensing software IrriSAT throughout the 2017-18 growing season. Each methodology produced estimations of PAW Deficits (mm) on 15 separate dates, at 13 sites within a 4.25-hectare field. To enable a fair comparison of the two technologies HydroLOGIC the soil water was not corrected by inputing soil water measurements, with just the crop parameters and irrigation dates entered up until the run date. IrriSAT had slightly higher correlation with NMM readings compared to HydroLOGIC when average across the measurement period. However the accuracy varied significantly during different periods which could signicantly impact on irrigation timing. During early to peak flowering IrriSAT overestimated NMM deficits by 20 - 30mm, which if relied on would result in irrigating much earlier than required whereas HydroLOGIC run without any soil water inputs underestimated crop water use after cut-out. . The EM38 device did not correlate well with NMM readings but as other studies have found strong correlations further calibration is likely required to test this. Overall, this study demonstrates that collaborative use of proximal devices such as the NMM with specialised predictive software could provide accurate estimations of soil water deficits throughout the full season, whilst saving time and labour.

The CRDC Grassroots Grants program encourages Cotton Grower Associations (CGAs) to apply for funding to support capacity building projects in their region.

Up to $10,000 in funding is available for CGAs to help fund a project aimed at increasing the engagement of growers in the industry, solving specific regional issues and improving their skills, knowledge base and networks.

Since the Grassroots Grants program commenced in 2011, CRDC has invested over $466,000 in 52 projects across the cotton growing valleys – from weather stations to crop nutrition workshops.Irrigation scheduling is an extremely important part of growing high yielding cotton crops. Water is a greatly limiting factor, particularly in the current climatic conditions with no general security Namoi river allocation since August 2013. The use of a suite of tools to enhance irrigation decision making processes and to be able to refine the use of our precious water resource in a most efficient manner is the aim of any water user and crop consultant. Currently most of the technology that has been widely adopted concentrates on the soil area under the plant. Canopy sensor technology has the potential to be a cost effective method of making irrigation recommendations using widely researched canopy temperature as an indicator of plant stress due to moisture requirements.

This project was undertaken after a presentation given by Onoriode Coast at a grower meeting held by Steve Madden Agriculture. The presentation illustrated positive yield results by using accumulated stress hours using canopy temperature sensors to schedule irrigation. In the initial year the intention was to be able to look at the accumulated stress hours on four cotton crops on four different farms across the Lower Namoi Valley that had canopy temperature sensors during the season. Unfortunately, the uploading of the data from the Sensor DB (provided by CSIRO) that allowed the information to be analysed using the Ausbiotic program could not happen as Sensor DB was not working from 1st January 2016 until June 2016. All data is historical but is still helpful in the evaluation of the technology as an irrigation decision making tool.

Weather Station Upgrades: The Darling Downs Cotton Growers Inc (DDCGI), and individual growers established 21 weather stations between the period 1996-1998, to provide growers with localised weather information to assist with on-farm management operations. The DDCGI has maintained these stations over this period, and are now transitioning to a web based platform (OzForecast). This grant has enabled all stations to be upgraded by the DDCGI to the current platform which provides better access to all users at a significantly reduced cost.

The autumn edition of CRDC's magazine, Spotlight, focuses on the impacts that research, development and extension delivers for growers and the industry.

The newly released Investment.Innovation.Impact report outlines CRDC's investments and impact under the 2013-18 CRDC Strategic RD&E Plan. From this report we can see impressive benefit-cost ratios of research, the contribution of growers into R&D, and many other achievements accomplished by CRDC-led RD&E during this time.

Similarly, CottonInfo’s five-year review shows an industry full of people willing to make change based on sound R&D and a palatable extension delivery mechanisms. This review includes the percentages of growers planning to, or who have made changes toward, improved efficiency and sustainability through the uptake of current R&D, technology and advice from industry experts. These changes and attitudes are further highlighted and collated in the annual CRDC Grower Survey, Australian Grown Cotton Sustainability Report, Cotton Industry Water Productivity report and Crop Consultants Australia’s Cotton Market Audit and Cotton Consultants Survey, all of which are featured in this edition.

Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) is an increasingly important water storage and supply management strategy, alongside demand management, to secure reliable water supplies while replenishing stressed groundwater systems and protecting water quality. MAR can be defined as the purposeful recharge of water to aquifers for subsequent recovery or environmental benefit. In the 50 years from 1965 to 2015, global MAR capacity has grown from 1000 to 10 000 GL/year (Dillon et al 2019). There are many examples from around the world that demonstrate the advantages of MAR (Ross and Hasnain 2018).

The USA accounts for 26% of the reported global MAR capacity. Annual average MAR in the US has grown from at least 302 GL in 1961-70 to at least 2569 GL in 2011-2015 . California accounts for over 70% of reported US recharge capacity, Arizona accounts for 20% and other states, notably New York, Florida and Texas, make up the remainder. Most of the reported recharge capacity is in infiltration basins (Dillon 2018). Although the majority of the MAR schemes in the US have been set up to secure urban water supplies, there are examples of well-established MAR schemes dedicated to supplying water for agriculture and irrigation

This report reviews four selected agricultural MAR case studies from the US and one from Spain, analysing key factors contributing to the feasibility and sustainability of each MAR scheme. These schemes have been selected to represent different MAR scales and technologies. The five schemes are the Arizona water bank, Kern water bank California, Kings River California, Central Platte Natural Resources Management District and the El Caracillo scheme in Spain. A summary of these schemes is given in Table 1.

The first part of the report contains an overview of each case study and factors affecting project feasibility and sustainability. The second part of the report includes further details and analysis of each case study including:

• objectives and evolution;

• physical feasibility; sources of water and recharge arrangements;

• financial and economic feasibility;

• impacts on third parties and the environment; and

• governance, legislation and policies.

This document provides a brief outline of the projects CRDC invested in for 2018-19 (current as of May 2018).

This project supports the CRDC Workforce Capacity theme. 10 CRDC-sponsored Horizon Scholarship recipients to attend the 2016 Australian Cotton Conference on the Gold Coast (conference and dinner tickets). RIRDC covered all travel and accommodation costs with shared funding provided by CRDC.

Theme 1 - Workforce Capacity

This CRDC strategic theme area is generally progressing well towards the goal of a skilled, educated and progressive workforce and achieves this through investment in a number of industry scholarships and educational opportunities.

The critical focus over the next three years is to ensure that the challenges identified below in italics are addressed, and that research outcomes result in the desired impact. A quick review of the current state of these challenges is as follows:

• Clearly identifying the role of CRDC and the role of industry: is being addressed through the collaborative development between CRDC and Cotton Australia of the Industry Workforce Development strategy.

• Ensuring the implementation of the Workforce Development Strategy: and integrating cotton specific initiatives with broader rural and agricultural initiatives already in place.

• Measuring the impact of initiatives: and being able to track the long term benefit of initiatives (Scholarships, workshops, conference participation etc.)for the industry

• Ensuring research outcomes flow downstream to growers: and are available through a variety of channels to meet grower information needs.

The importance of black root rot in cotton has increased to the point that it can determine if a field could be planted or not with the crop. There had been some attempts to use a predictive method to relate the levels of the fungus in the soil with the severity of the disease. However, certain correlations between soil types, history of the diseases in the paddock and quantification of the pathogen need to be tested in Australian soils. “Traditional” testing methods such as ELISA and colony enumeration methods had shown certain correlation with the disease incidence. New methods such as qPCR had also shown promising results. A mix of different testing techniques can have the possibility of yielding a method that can serve as a predictive tool without being expensive or impractical. After a comprehensive worldwide literature review, the most practical method in terms of value-for-money, practicability and availability would be set up under laboratory conditions to test the correlation between propagules of black root rot in the soil and history of disease development in the plant.

An increase in disease incidence is commonly seen hand-in-hand with increased productivity in all agricultural sectors over time. An increased incidence of one such disease, black root rot (Thielaviopsis basicola) of cotton, is a high risk to the returns of a number of cotton growers. A simple way to ameliorate the impact of this disease would be the implementation of a practical diagnostic test that would help agronomists and cotton producers to better manage black root rot to minimise investment risk. However, such a tool is not commercially available yet.

Microbiology Laboratories Australia can help solve this problem. We are experts in developing new diagnostic tests for soil microbiology, and providing them as a commercial service to meet the specific needs of individual industry sectors and end users. The development of a test that predicted the potential for black root rot in cotton crops would provide important new information to cotton growers and agronomists to help minimise the losses caused by black root rot. The proposed work will be conducted in two stages:

1. Comprehensive survey of worldwide scientific literature related to detection and quantification of black root rot of cotton (Thielaviopsis basicola).

2. Develop a quantitative method with predictive potential based on worldwide best practice up to trial test stage.