Many of Australia's broadacre crops have or will have herbicide tolerance traits added in the future.

The Assassin Bug, is a natural enemy that is showing considerable promise in controlling Heliothis and plant-sucking bugs in cotton.

Control of Helicoverpa armigera is being forced towards minimising reliance on broad spectrum insecticides.

In 1998 when we first started Benchmarking we were not sure what we were going to find.

Madame Chairperson, ladies and gentleman, good morning and welcome to my presentation on Profitability and Sustainability.

The objective of NFF's trade strategy is to achieve a more profitable international trading environment for Australia's farmers.

Northern Australia has long presented a series of problems in terms of sustainable cotton insect management.

Discussions with any number of people in the cotton industry will indicate that the move towards integrated Pest Management (IPM) has been one of the most significant changes in the industry in recent years, As a pest

Fusarium wilt continues to be an increasing problem in almost all major cotton growing regions of Australia.

The important role that beneficial arthropods play in cotton farming systems is increasingly being recognised across the industry.

Ecosystem services are the natural processes responsible for clean air, clean water, healthy uncontaminated food and a host of other environmental goods that we take for granted.

Cotton production worldwide uses 11 per cent of global insecticides each year and the trend continues to increase (Pesticide News, 2001).

In recent years late season populations of stinkbugs (green vegetable bug and green stink bug) have caused considerable damage in some cotton crops (Simpson et al. 2000, Khan and Bauer 2001).

The majority of cotton growers in the Australian cotton industry are familiar with an integrated approach to insect pest management.

Temperature plays many important roles in the growth and development of cotton.

While the cotton industry relies on large inputs of Nitrogen fertilizer, most growers are confident that their management of this input is satisfactory.

We are currently evaluating unsprayed strip crops planted beside dryland INGARD cotton as nurseries for beneficial arthropods.

Strains of cotton aphid and the green peach aphid were collected from cotton producing faints in eastern Australia. Green peach aphid was rarely collected but resistance to Curacron and Pirimor was documented.

Effective resistance monitoring underpins the Australian cotton resistance management strategy for insects and mites.

Historically research has shown cotton to be highly susceptible to the phenoxy herbicides. However, there is limited information on the impacts of other herbicides that may be used within current fanning systems.