U.S. cotton industry members’ struggles continued into 2003 but amid signs of a global cotton economy turnaround.
An anchor during these turbulent times is The Cotton Foundation, which vigorously carries out its mission of encouraging, facilitating and conducting cotton research and education. The Foundation yields its support to projects that can help the National Cotton Council (NCC) carry out its mission of providing U.S. cotton industry members a world marketplace advantage. That edge is new technology - in the form of new products, systems or techniques. All Foundation-supported projects are aimed at developing these tools to help industry members reduce their fiber production, processing and handling costs – and affect bottom lines positively.
For 2002-2003, the Foundation was able to provide more than $425,500 in support of 36 general research and education efforts. The projects, categorized as market development, profitability and regulatory, ranged from finding additional cottonseed product value-added uses to using precision farming for meeting the federal government’s total maximum daily load requirements on streams and watersheds.
Precision farming projects, logically, are receiving a sizeable focus. The Foundation had a small, but important role in the blossoming of that technology. Seed money was provided in cooperation with NASA and the Department of Energy in the late 1990s to ensure that hyperspectral remote sensing technology could be adapted for agriculture use.
Aflatoxin control has been another focus. The Foundation welcomed EPA’s June 2003 approval for use of the biopesticide Aspergillus flavus AF36 in Arizona and Texas. Since the mid-1990s, the Foundation has supported USDA Agricultural Research Service-led field trials and commercialization of AF36 in these states to combat this natural carcinogen that greatly reduces cottonseed market value.
Non-dues grants from some of the 69 member firms enabled the Foundation to sustain 12 special projects during 2002-2003.
That included the Cotton Leadership Program, the longest running special project. The program, which graduated its 20th class in 2003, now has prepared 200 industry members for service, and many have assumed leadership roles locally, regionally and nationally. That includes the 2003 NCC Chairman, Bobby Greene, an Alabama ginner and graduate of the program’s 1984-85 class, and Cotton Council International President Bobby Carson, a Mississippi producer and 1983-84 graduate.
This past year, the Foundation continued to expand its role of facilitating alliances between member firms and the NCC - for underwriting key NCC activities.
For example, multiple-member financial support was gained for two major NCC initiatives launched in 2003. The Cotton Biotechnology Registration and Communication project seeks to strengthen the cotton industry’s position for supporting continued registration of and permits for biotechnology products. The Cotton Pesticide Registration and Education project provides a vehicle for plant protection and plant health product registrants to work with the NCC to strengthen the association’s ability to ensure access to a safe and effective spectrum of new and existing cotton plant protection products.
In addition, individual Foundation member firms now are backing core NCC communications vehicles: the Cotton’s Week newsletter, AgDay Cotton’s Week program and Cotton eNews.
Such partnerships are invaluable and can benefit the NCC immeasurably in sustaining its mission and propelling U.S. cotton’s success in the world marketplace.
Don Cameron, 2003-04 Chairman
The Cotton Foundation
(Cameron served as 2002-03 Foundation president.)
