The Spring 2023 edition of Spotlight takes a deep dive into the 2022 Sustainability Update. While the industry has made significant gains in areas such as water use efficiency, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are up. As a result, this edition includes some articles on CRDC investments into R&D to help growers and post-farm gate sectors to reduce emissions.
It also looks at the new CRDC 2023-28 Strategic RD&E Plan, Clever Cotton, which is structured around the themes of Paddock, People and Planet – in line with the Australian Cotton Industry Sustainability Framework. CRDC’s investments under these pillars is overseen by CRDC's Innovation Brokers, and in this edition, we introduce (or reintroduce) you to each of them, along with CRDC's innovation administrators, business and finance and communications and extension teams. This edition also marks a farewell to CRDC's former Executive Director, Ian Taylor.
Clever Cotton outlines CRDC’s ambition and new approach featuring larger programs of research investment, rather than individual projects. It kicked off with the new $10 million Australian Cotton Disease Collaboration (ACDC), which CRDC announced in July. CRDC has listened to growers and crop managers who have been calling for more help to manage disease and have received an overwhelming response to the call for potential partners.
In this edition, we also take a look at some of CRDC's most impactful investments under the last strategic plan, which finished in June. A benefit-cost analysis has found that some of CRDC's major collaborative projects have delivered the greatest return to growers. The analysis found that WAND, the Weather and Networked Data (WAND) partnership with GRDC and Goanna Ag, will deliver a benefit-cost of $12.54 to $1 – that is, a $12.54 return to growers for every dollar invested over the period 2023-2030.
All this, and more, in Spotlight.
