abc.net.au/news/cotton-industry-set-to-double-north-australia/101712288A lucrative industry has emerged on the doorstep of the Northern Territory — around five years after a ban was lifted. And it is about to double in size.Last season saw some of the highest prices for Australian cottonAs the annual monsoon fast approaches, farmers are preparing massive swathes of land across the Top End for one of the world's most profitable crops: cotton.
In the middle of 2019, Bruce Connolly was at the helm of harvesting the Territory's first commercial cotton trial in 15 years at Tipperary Station, south of Darwin.Since then, as southern drought-plagued cotton regions faced increased scrutiny, many in the industry have looked for other regions to grow in, and they have chosen the Northern Territory, a jurisdiction where water is free, there is abundant land, and the climate is just right.
This year, as the planting window opens, the cotton industry is expected to expand from around 8,000 hectares to around 15,000 hectares, along a wide belt of country that stretches about 100km south of Katherine, through the Douglas Daly region, and north to Adelaide River.It follows the successful 2022 harvest, where some bales fetched more than $900, according to the manager of Tipperary Station and Northern Cotton Growers Association president, Bruce Connolly.
"I'm not sure we've seen it that high too many times before," he said, with prices traditionally sitting at the $500 to $600 mark.Not according to Mr Connolly.The industry as a whole produced yields of around two to seven bales of cotton per hectare, depending on location, using a mostly "rain-fed" system, which relies not on irrigation, but on monsoon downpours, Mr Connolly said.
Also among the most environment polluting crops......
Oh, perfect. Just the response to climate change that we were looking for. Will these cotton growers ravish the environment around them like they did on the Murray river?
Where is the water coming from?
That's the spirit, why not increase a water hungry crop in a nation that struggle with water from time to time. A bit like California where 80% of the water is used to grow two crops for the Latte brigade, while the poor are fed the 'there is a drought' bull shit.
Move to hemp. Less water better yield 👍
ClimateChange will soon put a stopper to this claim!
Will it find better means of growing? Less water usage or recycling?
we need to produce more food NOT cotton India n US r cotton growers Why do we need to grow cotton? we can not eat it
Do we have an Australian based manufacturing industry to support it? Don't believe it, as most cotton clothes I see are overseas manufacturered.
when a bad idea lines up with one good wet season... The campaign against cotton 20 years ago was based on GMO, but when the NT ALP Government issued a ban, they were keen to base it on water. GMOs were OK, they said, but cotton is just too thirsty for NT.
Ahhhh fantastic, as a rural Australian dependent on a major river..... History has taught us nothing clearly. The rain is gunna stop and for a long time. They better build their dams well because they'll get dynamited by thirsty people.
Typical ABC article, ends with the “traditional landowner” making some anecdotal bullshit claim.
Tesla Semi will be here in Australia at the beginning of 2024. The first YouTube video of many Arcimoto - I will pre-order the Mean Lean Machine next week
ah nice the rise before the fall. Drought is coming and all those farmers stupid enough to go there, wont be farmers soon. Current native vegetation survives the environment because it evolved too, European farming practices will not. weather models are so accurate 'not'
So how do we know that we are wearing Australian grown cotton? Do the overseas milling plants have special rooms, machinery for Aussie only produce? Or once it’s milled, it goes with all the other countries thread. Just like we mix all the farmers cotton once we’ve gunned it?
Be thankful for climate change.