Brasilia, 3-6 Setembro 2013

Plenária – Expedição do Algodão 2013 HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN COTTON INDUSTRY Stephen Yeates CSIRO Plant Industry, Ayr, Queensland, Australia.

In 2013 the Australian cotton industry is an outstanding success being grown on profitable

farms producing the worlds’ highest yields of very high quality fibre from locally bred varieties. Since 1963 yields have increased by 5% per year, a greater increase than any other major agricultural industry in Australia. Wheat and sugarcane yields only increased 2.2% and 0.4% per year over the same period. In recent years Brazil has produced percentage increases in yield greater than Australia and like Australia produces cotton of large scale farms and exports much of its fibre. This presentation will focus on how the Australian cotton industry got to where it is in 2013 because it has not been an easy journey and there have been many challenges.

Attempts to grow cotton started with the first British settlers in 1788 and prior to 1963

cotton was grown opportunistically as a low input rainfed crop on a very small scale ( 8 to 20 ha per farm) mostly in the state of Queensland. Yields were extremely low 170 kg lint /ha and did not improve between 1920 and 1963. Australia imported raw cotton until 1968.

The genesis for the modern cotton industry started in the late 1950’s with field research and

the construction of irrigation dams in temperate Australia on the Namoi River (30oS) and in tropical Australia on the Ord River (15oS). The objective was to grow irrigated cotton on a large scale using the best available machinery and pesticides to manage the crop. Commercial production started in 1963 at both locations. History shows that the Namoi went on to be the centre of the modern cotton industry while the industry at the Ord River was terminated in 1974 due to resistance to insecticides by Helicoverpa armigera. The failure at the Ord combined with the less publicised near failure in temperate Australia to insecticide resistance by Helicoverpa armigera at the same time was a major factor in shaping the culture of the Australian cotton industry since the early 1970’s.

Understanding the reasons for the failure of cotton at the Ord River provides important

lessons for insect pest management in tropical and temperate climates. The intention was to sow cotton early in the wet season in November – December and supplement rainfall with irrigation in the early dry season and pick in June – July. Changes to crop management which increased yields and profitability up to 1971 all prolonged the flowering period or delayed picking and combined with calendar spraying with DDT and other broad spectrum insecticides initially applied to other pests (Spodoptera litura and Pectinophora gossypiella) selected for resistance in Helicoverpa armigera. The number of sprays applied per season doubled between 1971 and 1974 when an average of 40 insecticide applications were made per crop. For many Australians the failure at the Ord in the 1970s created a mindset against cotton production and large scale irrigation in the tropics.

In temperate Australia the cotton industry rapidly spread from its Origins in the Namoi to

nearby valleys to the north, south and west. However the threat of insecticide resistance did not go

Brasilia, 3-6 Setembro 2013

away with the development of synthetic pyrethorides. The first insecticide resistance management practices were developed and adopted by industry in the early 1980’s. These practices have evolved over time and have included new pest threats such as mites and silverleaf whitefly. The resistance management plan for transgenic Bt cotton was developed prior to planting the first single gene Bt varieties and revised when Bollgard II and glyphosate resistant varieties were released in 2005.

The establishment of the industry near the Namoi River was initiated by cotton farmers who emigrated from California in response to promising research trials. The similarity of climate meant many production practices and varieties could be transferred from California. Deltapine varieties from the USA dominated until the mid 1980’s. The Australian cotton industry has supported and partnered research from its beginnings in 1963. Local plant breeding combined with agronomic research to improve husbandry have been shown to have contributed equally to yield increases since 1980. The variability in irrigation water supply, increasing water use efficiency at the crop and farm level, labour shortages and high production costs are the main challenges over the next 5 to 10 years.