Australia’s cotton farmers have been warned that they need to continue cultivating sustainable cropping systems to improve their bottom line.
The importance of eco-friendly practices was stressed to almost 3000 growers and industry stakeholders at the annual Australian cotton conference on the Gold Coast on Wednesday.
Mullallee grower Scott McCalman, who has spent more than 20 years trying to reduce fertiliser and improve his crop health, told AAP a huge amount of trial and error has been involved.
“We looked at ways of coming up with some novel approaches to develop ways of providing nutrition to the plant that wasn’t solely synthetic,” he said.
Two decades on, he’s introduced a diverse crop mix to his business, reducing his reliance on fertiliser.
This includes cover crops which have improved his soil health and soil carbon.
“It’s a game changer … it’s there to regenerate the soil,” Mr McCalman said.
“It’s there to limit weed growth, it’s there to pick up more water use efficiency.”
Cotton Australia boss Adam Kay points to government data as evidence the industry has made big environmental inroads, including a reduction in insecticide by 97 per cent in the past 25 years, while doubling water efficiency.
A litre of water now produces twice as much cotton as it did in the late 1990s, he said.
“It’s an important part of the industry establishing these sustainability credentials.
“The thing that burdens us is the past … the industry had a reliance on pesticides back in the late 80s, early 90s and and water use was was a lot higher.
“We recognised that and invested in research and development.”
An industry report released in July shows “close to 90 per cent of environmental practices observed across all farms were ranked as excellent, very good or good”.
Almost half of all growers are also certified sustainable under Cotton Australia’s guidelines.
Mr Kay said while 55 per cent are yet to be certified, the industry is still in “good shape,” with another 35 per cent of growers almost across the line.
“It’s got about 400 checks and it’s got all those things that people would call regenerative practices,” he said.