The Australian cotton industry invests significantly through CRDC into leadership development programs. This has created an upswell of engaged leaders, contributing in different forums, organisations, committees, and communities to the advancement of the cotton industry as a whole.

The cotton industry has a strong reputation amongst its graduate participants for being progressive, encouraging, inclusive, and dynamic. This bodes well for future recruitment to the sector as well as encouraging stewardship and leadership within it. While the leadership program offerings are extensive, there remains a few critical leadership capacity gaps - as outlined by this review of CRDC's investment in leadership programs, which aims to guide future investment.