Plenria Expedio do Algodo 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 1950s with field research and
the construction of irrigation dams in temperate Australia on the Namoi River (30 oS) 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 1970s.
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 1980s. 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 1980s. 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.

Brasilia, 3-6 Setembro 2013