Spotlight Magazine

The Winter 2026 edition of Spotlight highlights how Australia’s cotton industry is tackling real on‑farm risks through practical research, grower‑led trials and new innovation. Across this edition, you’ll find a strong focus on improving disease identification and management through expanded diagnostics, building drought resilience through on‑farm trials, and testing new approaches to nitrogen use.

The Autumn 2026 edition of Spotlight edition highlights the next phase of on‑farm action through Cotton Low Emissions Intensity Farming Systems (Cotton LEIFS), with grower‑led trials now underway across Qld and NSW. From enhanced efficiency fertilisers and smarter nitrogen use to cover crops like sunn hemp, these projects are testing real-world solutions to cut emissions while maintaining productivity.

The Summer 2025–26 edition of Spotlight captures a season of innovation, leadership and forward-thinking collaboration. This edition opens with CRDC’s 2025 Innovation Call, offering up to $50,000 to innovations and solutions for cotton’s most pressing challenges, from pest management and riparian weed control to optimising nitrogen use.

The Spring 2025 edition of Spotlight captures a season of progress and partnership in Australian cotton. This issue leads with the announcement of the Australian Cotton Industry Data Platform build – a $7 million CRDC initiative with KPMG Australia – set to streamline data management, boost traceability and prepare growers for future market demands.

The Winter 2025 edition of Spotlight showcases the latest in cotton research and innovation, headlined by a $13 million project exploring floating solar panels on irrigation storages. This initiative aims to reduce evaporation, generate renewable energy, and enhance drought resilience, tackling three of cotton's challenges – water, energy, and emissions – in one stroke.

The Autumn 2025 edition of Spotlight introduces a new era for CottonInfo, which remains a joint partnership of CRDC, Cotton Australia and Cotton Seed Distributors (CSD), but under a new structure, with CRDC leading and managing the program, Cotton Australia supporting through myBMP, and CSD as a key program investor.

The Summer 2024-25 edition of Spotlight takes a deep dive into the critical role nitrogen plays on cotton farms and its impact on cotton's greenhouse gas emissions, explores exciting new spray technology from SwarmFarm and the LX Group, and delivers an update on the Australian Cotton Disease Collaboration.

The Spring 2024 edition of Spotlight brings you the highlights from the Australian Cotton Conference and the announcement of the Cotton Industry Award winners, showcases the partners in CRDC's new $13m Australian Cotton Disease Collaboration, and takes a look at cotton's new digital strategy.

The Winter 2024 edition of Spotlight takes a look at the just-released Fourth Environmental Assessment, commissioned by CRDC and Cotton Australia as part of our industry’s PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. Sustainability Framework, and some of its recommendations.