CSIRO Plant lndustry's Cotton Management Support Systems Team (CMSST) develops and

delivers decision support systems (DSS) to improve the profitability and sustainability of

Despite its widespread occurrence, the genetics of fusarium wilt resistance in cotton has still not been clearly elucidated.

This project has part funded field operation costs charged by NSW DPI to CSIRO for experiments on ACRI at Narrabri in 2006/07.

I was invited to speak in a symposium on monitoring for resistance to Bt at the 2006 combined Meetings of the Society of Invertebrate Pathology and VIII International Conference on Bacillus thuringiensis (ICBt).

12 Main recommendations were made in consultation with panel and research institutes around the major future challenges for the cotton industry. These included:

*Drought and reduced research funding