Although 52% less water is now needed to grow a bale of cotton compared to 1997, the rate of reduction is declining and there is a slightly lower yield and higher fertiliser increased emissions per bale, the Australian Cotton Sustainability Update 2022 reveals.
- The yield dipped slightly from 2021; two years of severe drought before that meant that the trendline is flat and that irrigated cotton is important to whole farm profitability and resilience.
THE REPORT: Australian Cotton Sustainability Framework: Planet. People. Paddock is the cotton industry’s sustainability framework that works to identify the environmental, social and economic topics assessed as being most important to industry and its stakeholders; coordinate a whole-of-industry strategy to manage these topics, and, engage with stakeholders on actions and progress.
- A Sustainability Working Group (SWG) comprising industry representatives from Cotton Australia, the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC), CottonInfo, myBMP and the Australian Cotton Shippers Association oversaw the report that was worked out within the 12 month period leading up to 30 June 2022.
MAJOR FINDINGS: Cotton is grown mainly on family farms in inland eastern Australia. In recent years, it has also expanded into parts of Northern Australia. According to the report:
- a major project to set native vegetation regionally appropriate targets has advanced;
- more rain combined with weed resistance management strategies increased herbicide environmental toxic load in recent years;
- practices consistent with regenerative agriculture continue to be commonly used by growers;
- increased proportion of women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples working on farms and in gins.
It was in 1991 that the cotton industry became the first Australian agricultural industry to independently assess its environmental impacts and has since then been working to continuously improve its sustainability.
Some key insights:
Production: Good seasonal conditions saw a large area planted and a record 5.6 million bales picked. Australian cotton growers have dramatically improved their productivity over time. The five-year average area planted to cotton has increased by 11% from 1994 to 2022, but total production has increased 84%.
Productivity: The draft five-year target is to increase irrigated cotton yield by 12.5%. While extreme weather events limit yield potential, introduction of new technologies and farming systems can increase yield. The way to go about it:
- Establish an industry-owned data platform to deliver increased profitability and productivity through better decisionmaking, facilitating innovative research to deliver better solutions;
- Build resilience to an increasingly variable climate with limited water and reduced inputs.
Water: The latest available data from 2020–21 shows a return to a long-term trend of less water used to grow cotton in Australia.
- Higher temperatures and lower rainfall associated with severe drought in 2018–19 saw more evaporation, more plant stress, and more irrigation water needed to grow cotton. All of those factors combined to reduce yields and reduce water use efficiency in that drought year.
- Water used to produce a bale of cotton lint has reduced significantly since 1997, but the rate of reduction is declining: efficiency gains are harder to maintain as growers get closer to what is physiologically possible for a plant.
