The Australian cotton industry has more than halved its water usage in the last quarter of a century. The industry now uses 52% less water needed to grow a bale of cotton compared to 1997.
- The Sustainable Water Use Index shows the volume of water needed to grow a bale of cotton reduced by 52% from 1997 (chosen by NSW DPI as the baseline because it is the first year of representative and consistent data) compared to 2021. [The New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, NSW DPI, is an agency of the New South Wales Government, responsible for the administration and development for agriculture, fisheries, aquaculture, forestry, and biosecurity in New South Wales.]
- However, the rate of reduction itself is declining. This is because efficiency gains are harder to maintain as growers get closer to what is physiologically possible for a plant.
- The numbers are from Australian Cotton Sustainability Update 2022, published by Cotton Australia and the Cotton Research and Development Corporation. The update provides a summary of the Australian cotton industry’s sustainability progress for the 12 months to 30 June 2022.
The Highlights: The report provides a summary of the Australian cotton industry’s sustainability progress for the 12 months to 30 June 2022 across its most important PLANET (environment), PEOPLE (social) and PADDOCK (economic) topics:
- Good seasonal conditions saw a large area planted and a record harvest of 5.6 million bales valued at a record $4.6 billion.
- Australian cotton growers have dramatically improved their productivity over time: the five-year average area planted to cotton has increased by just 11% since 1994, but total production has increased by 84%.
- In Australia, water is highly regulated to ensure sustainable withdrawals of freshwater. Governments set sustainable water use limits, where basic environment and human needs must be met before any water is allocated for irrigation.
- Cotton is an important contributor to rural economies Income earned by cotton growers helps pay wages and taxes that support roads, schools and services right around Australia. Cotton growers support regional economies.
- More than 75% of cotton grower business expenses are spent locally; cotton farms employed an average of eight people in 2021–22; and, cotton was grown in 65 local government areas in the 2021 Census, and contributed over 10% of the gross crop value grown in 24 of them.
- Growing, ginning and transporting cotton to port is estimated to account for about 0.2% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).
- GHGs per bale increased by an estimated 15% compared to the previous season. This is because emissions per bale are driven largely by yield and the amount of N (nitrogen) applied per hectare; in 2021–22 a 2% decrease in yield and a 6% increase in N per hectare led to an increase in emissions per bale. [Nitrogen (N) is essential for plant growth, but N fertiliser also accounts for about 70% of on-farm cotton GHGs (fertiliser manufacturing and field emissions). Reducing the amount of N used to grow a kg of cotton is therefore essential to reduce GHGs.]
- On average, about 21% of the area of a cotton farm has remnant native vegetation. The majority of this is grazing land, and some is actively managed for conservation: it is not cropped or normally grazed.
- Since biodiversity is extremely hard to measure at industry scale, Cotton Australia has decided to focus current efforts on enhancing native vegetation on cotton farms, and look to expand this focus to animals and other biodiversity in the future.
- Grower surveys have reported the mean proportion of a cotton farm’s area managed for conservation as 3–4% for several years. The 2022 grower survey saw this figure increase to 8%.
- The data suggests this was a result of grazing land being left ungrazed, but more data is needed before establishing this as a trend.
- The five-year average ETL (environmental toxic load) for bees (an insecticide indicator species) and ETL for algae (a herbicide indicator species) has declined by 91% and 66% respectively from 2004 to 2022.
