The world of natural resource management is extremely dynamic, and is underpinned by the knowledge of farmers, resource managers and local communities, as well as that of scientists and research organisations. The most practical, innovative ideas are grounded in intimate knowledge, understanding and experience. The multiple aims of maintaining a profitable agricultural business while managing and protecting the resource base can be combined. As the price of water and energy goes up, farming systems that close the loop will become more and more competitive, domestically and globally. Win-wins do happen, BUT we should never be under any delusion that they are inevitable, commonplace or even always possible.

Compression athletic wear is usually made from synthetic fibres, often by coating an elastomer band on the fabric surface. There are currently no methods of creating compression athletic wear containing predominantly cotton. This project used an innovative approach to develop fabrics suitable for compression garments from Australian Long Staple cotton to favourably compete with currently available synthetic compression athletic wear. Through this project the comfort advantage of the developed fabric over the existing synthetic products was demonstrated. This research led to developing a fabric with improved breathability and heat and moisture transfer for people who prefer to get the ultimate benefits of cotton in their garments for sports and outdoor activities in all climates. This project will open up a new opportunity to develop an innovative

manufacturing technology and new market for Australian cotton, which could be used in otherapplication outside of active wear, such as medical textiles.

The purpose of this travel scholarship was to enable tone researcher to participate in and present results of Australian whitefly research at the 3rd International Whitefly Symposium in 2018, held in Perth. This meeting presented an unique opportunity for Australian researchers to attend an international gathering of prominent whitefly researchers from all over the world on home ground. The primary objectives of involvement were firstly, to enable professional relationships to be developed with researchers from the United States, Asia-Pacific countries, as well as Africa, where whitefly is a problem in field crops such as cotton. Secondly, to scope out the latest approaches to whitefly control in cotton and gauge applicability and transfer potential of such technologies to Australian cotton production systems. Finally, to enhance knowledge, professional development and potential for future collaborative work.

The Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC) Strategic Plan 2018-2023 Goal 3 calls for building the adaptive capacity of the Australian cotton industry to enable the industry to achieve its future vision. It is noted that in addition, CRDC will provide our industry stakeholders with opportunities to develop and advance innovation skills. CRDC RD&E investments will prepare Australian cotton growers for our changing environment and provide them with the skills to adapt to those changes.

In 2015/16, it was recognised that significant technological advances were unfolding in an expanding Australian Cotton industry. Likewise, previous research had identified a nexus between an available skilled, capable, competent and professional workforce to meet these emerging needs. Thus, the rationale for this project was based on the premise that a skilled and capable workforce is known to contribute to the industry's profitability, sustainability and competitiveness.

However, the extent of availability of such a workforce to the range of cotton growers (from small to more corporate enterprises) as well as to the support sector (in particular the agribusiness advisory sector) and its capacity for, and methods of, professional development were largely unknown. Equally, ways of measuring the return on investment (ROI) and impact of undertaking forms of training, education, skill development and professional development were somewhat rudimentary.

Through the CRDC Managed People Program (also representing Cotton Australia or CA), there was a demonstrated need to understand more about how skill development and professional development was undertaken. Similarly, ways of measuring impact and value for money of these initiatives, to provide objective measures of success (on-farm, in businesses and for research work) was also required. As result, a Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting (MER) process was developed to measure the impact sought.

The most important message from the symposium was about complex and dynamic interactions. Interactions between host, pathogen and environment are what determine the economic impact of disease. In this report I try to highlight some key messages in these areas.

This document provides a brief outline of the projects CRDC has invested in for 2020-21 (current as of May 2020).

The Australian Cotton Research Conference is a biennial Research Conference run by the Association of Australian Cotton Scientists (AACS) hosted each time by a different Research Organisation and administered by an Organising Committee. This was the third Conference and was hosted by CSIRO in Canberra at the CSIRO Discovery Centre. The Committee for the 2017 event was Danny Llewellyn, Chair (CSIRO, Canberra); Paul Grundy (QDAF); Warren Conaty (CSIRO, Narrabri); Ruth Redfern (CRDC); Mark Peoples (CSIRO, Canberra);Iain Wilson (CSIRO, Canberra); Filomena Pettolino (CSIRO, Canberra); Colleen MacMillan (CSIRO, Canberra); Philippe Moncuquet (CSIRO, Canberra);Lisa Ermanli, Admin Support (CSIRO, Canberra). The objectives of the biennial Australian Cotton Research Conferences are to serve as a platform for cotton researchers to present and discuss concepts, key issues and the latest findings in research relevant to the Australian cotton industry, and cotton research community. The conference also encourages networking and collaborations, and a better understanding of the scope of science performed across the breadth of the cotton industry. The three day conference included plenary lectures from renowned speakers (including one international invited speaker, Dr Juan Landivar Bowles, Texas A&M, USA), and research talks within a range of themes, as well as tours of the High Performance Plant Phenomics Centre at CSIRO. There was a welcome reception on the first evening at the CSIRO Discovery Centre and a conference dinner on the second night at the National Museum of Australia, where a number of Association Awards were presented (including the Association’s Early Career Scientist Encouragement Award that was presented to Dr Guna Nachimuthu (NSW DPI) in acknowledgement of his contributions to soil science, the Service to Cotton Science Award to Dr Lewis Wilson (CSIRO) for his contributions to cotton IPM research and the Scientific Publication Award to Drs Grant Herron (NSW DPI) and Lewis Wilson for their recent publication on resistance management strategies to recover insecticide susceptibility in the cotton aphid in Australian cotton. Nilantha Hulugalle, Ian Rochester (posthumously), Jim Peacock, Geoff Baker, and Stephen Allen were elected Lifetime Members of the Association in recognition of their distinguished careers in supporting Cotton Science in Australia). The Annual General Meeting of the Association was held on the final day at which a new Executive committee was elected, including Paul Grundy as the new President. Cleave Rogan (Deputy Chair, CRDC) closed off the conference noting the high international standard of the research being undertaken in Australia and the obvious renewal happening in the research space as many of our older industry stalwarts move on and new blood is attracted to the industry to fill their places, ensuring that the research base of the industry is in safe hands for the future. Details of the conference, invited speakers and abstracts are available at the AACS website. The conference was well attended and all sessions were actively participated in. All delegates that elected to give a talk were accommodated in one of the many sessions. About half the delegates went on the tour of the HPPC. This was the first time that we have used a Conference App for tablets and smart phones instead of a printed Conference booklet and this was well received by the conference delegates. There were also no physical posters displayed but the eight posters received were available through the App and on the conference website for download and were displayed on the large screen during some of the breaks. The conference was well attended and achieved its goals of fostering exchange of information and establishing and reinforcing collaborations between researchers within and across the industry. The next conference will be held in 2019 at the University of New England, Armidale.

This project seeks to create a forum which brings together all levels of the cotton industry in the Macquarie Valley and from across all geographical areas of the valley, giving a platform for an exchange of information and support and the opportunity to connect with and create new partnerships. Funding from CRDC asssits to keep the event operating at a level that makes it prestigious and valued by our members, with 165 attendees at the annual Awards dinner.

The Macquarie Valley CGA committee feels it is important for the cohesiveness of our cotton grower community to gather as many growers together as possible for this event. The energy created by the interactions on the night creates a very positive outlook for the coming season.

The grassroots funding objective for this project was to support growers in identifying pathways to incorporate summer crops as a means of improving farming system efficiencies. This research involved a comparison of dryland cotton to dryland sorghum on various row crop configurations on a property at Mungingdi.

The Resistance Management Plan (RMP) for Australian Bt cotton aims to minimise the development of resistant Helicoverpa moths. This project aims to assess if the legislated distance between pigeon pea and Bt legislated in the plan is adequate for preventing the movement of larvae between crops on commercial farms. To do this the behaviour and movement of larvae was observed. An experiment was set up to test how the movement of larvae was affected by factors such as the distance between pigeon pea and cotton (25 - 100cm), crop attractiveness (cotton either had or did not have flowers) and the presence of water. The experiments showed that larvae will move up to one metre over bare soil to reach Bt cotton. Furthermore, the likelihood of larvae reaching the cotton is increased by the presence of cotton flowers. Larvae were also observed swimming on water suggesting that this is a way in which young Helicoverpa can move within the field. This information indicates that, to improve the efficiency of the current RMP refuges should not be adjacent to Bt cotton within the same field but future work is needed to validate these laboratory findings under field conditions.

Helicoverpa armigera and Helicoverpa punctigera are destructive and adaptable pests that co-exist within the Australian cotton industry. There has been minimal research regarding how these two species interact within cotton crops to understand if one species dominants the other, or in which environment this dominance occurs. As part of the RMP, refuges are planted next to Bt cotton to produce high numbers of moths. If larval numbers are high in these refuges, then one Helicoverpa species could force out the other onto the neighbouring Bt cotton, where it would be exposed to Bt toxins. The aim of this work was to establish how H. armigera and H. punctigera competed for food, and whether in times of high density, one species was more likely to be pushed out of the pigeon pea into Bt cotton. Mixed and single species groups of 3rd to 5th instar H. armigera and H. punctigera larvae were set up on non-flowering pigeon pea or flowering non-Bt cotton refuges, and given the option of moving onto Bt cotton. H. armigera were likely to move off non- flowering pigeon pea irrespective of larval density. In mixed species groups, H. armigera and H. punctigera behaved as if they are one species complex and neither were more likely to move off the non-Bt flowering refuge. Both larvae species also seemed to be gregarious, but this needs further investigation. These results indicate that interspecific competition will not cause one species to be more exposed to Bt cotton than the other, but that there may be differences between the species in whether they will move onto Bt cotton.