Special projects are funded by Foundation members over and above their regular dues. Grant amounts listed for the special projects are per-year amounts. Some projects have been funded for a specific length of time while others are ongoing.
The Cotton Leadership Program seeks to identify potential industry leaders and provide them with developmental training. A class comprised of four cotton producers and one member from each of the other six industry segments participates in five, week-long sessions. These provide: policy and issue discussions with current and former industry leaders; observation of production and processing and key research across the Cotton Belt; visits with lawmakers and government and regulatory officials in Washington, DC; attendance at the National Cotton Council (NCC) annual and mid-year meetings; and communications training.
With the selection of the 2004-05 class in August, 220 men and women now have honed their leadership skills and been given the opportunity to assume positions of leadership in state, regional and national interest organizations. Many already have risen to take top posts within the National Cotton Council, Cotton Council International, The Cotton Foundation and other key organizations.
The leadership program’s alumni are active and the program maintains a web site at http://leadership.cotton.org that provides description, application forms and other useful information.
Congressional staffers visited National Cotton Council headquarters and toured cotton production, processing and research in the Mid-South in August, 2004.
House, Senate and committee staffers get to see U.S. cotton’s production and processing infrastructure by visiting farms, gins and other facilities across the Cotton Belt. The orientation’s overall aim is to raise lawmakers’ awareness of an efficient U.S. cotton sector and its contributions to this nation. Another message conveyed during the tours is the U.S. cotton industry’s need to compete profitably in the global marketplace.
In 2004, a group of Washington, DC-based Congressional staffers toured industry operations in the Mid-South and visited NCC and Cotton Incorporated headquarters. Another Congressional group saw industry operations in West Texas and Arizona. During their tours, both groups also: 1) were shown public and private cotton research and adoption of leading edge technology and 2) visited with key industry leadership to gain valuable insights on concerns threatening U.S. cotton’s health.
The goals of this NCC educational campaign are increasing consumers’ understanding of U.S. cotton and appreciation of the industry’s contributions to the nation’s economic health and quality of life.
With a particular focus on students, the campaign is targeting the growing number of urban Americans who have lost their familiarity with production agriculture. The grant also helps the NCC provide communications and other training to National Cotton Women’s Committee members. Armed with facts such as U.S. cotton’s value-added retail impact of $120 billion to the U.S. economy, these volunteers are carrying cotton’s message from the schoolhouse to the state fair. Updates on NCWC members’ activities and other campaign news and information can be found at www.cottoncounts.net.
Southeastern cotton producers from left: Jerry Davis, Jay, FL; Ryan Gunter, Reevesville, SC; and Steve McAlhany, Branchville, SC; visited Tunica, MS, producer Justin Cariker's (far right) farm in August as part of the 2004 Producer Information Exchange Program.
More than 700 producers from across the Cotton Belt have benefited from this program – one that encourages its participants to maximize production efficiency and speed the adoption of proven technology and farming practices.
During four tours, cotton producers travel to one of the four specific Cotton Belt production regions to get face-to-face interaction with their peers and observe production techniques and technology in regions different from their own. Participants also are able to share information with each other on the week-long tours. This enables them to get new ideas and perspectives in such areas as land preparation, variety selection, planting, tillage, fertilization, pest control, irrigation and harvesting.
All P.I.E. alumni are encouraged to attend the annual Beltwide Cotton Conferences as a way to further their knowledge of innovative technology and farming methods.
Cotton Council International (CCI) COTTON USA Advantage Program
Emergent Genetics Grant: $75,000
The COTTON USA Advantage Program supports CCI’s overarching effort to increase demand for U.S. cotton fiber and cotton products – a vital endeavor as the U.S. cotton industry’s profitability hinges on increased exports.
This program enables CCI to leverage funds from USDA through the Market Access Program and from other global partners to carry out retail promotion, advertising and trade servicing activities under CCI’s supply-push/demand-pull strategy. Included is the “Cotton Gold Alliance” program in which CCI is partnering with Cotton Incorporated to stimulate demand for U.S. cotton and cotton products in countries where traditionally healthy manufacturer and consumer cotton consumption has been blunted by man-made fibers.
Researchers continue to evaluate standard defoliation and desiccation treatments and newer practices and products. The goal is to use findings to develop effective, contemporary harvest aid recommendations that contribute to harvest efficiency.
The scientists’ initial findings were included in The Cotton Foundation Cotton Reference Book - COTTON HARVEST MANAGEMENT: Use and Influence of Harvest Aids. All of the reference books can be purchased by visiting www.cotton.org/foundation/ref-books.cfm.
Policy Education Program participants for 2004 included: (sitting, from left) Brad Williams, Ron Lee, Jr. and Justin Cariker; and (standing, from left) Neil Strong (Syngenta), Harvey Schroeder, Frank Anaya, Claude Bundrick, John Fleming, Robert Royal, Thomas Kirkland, Jim Neufield, Jim Massey, IV, Heath Watson, Frankie Bezner and Marjory Walker (NCC).
Since this orientation program was initiated six years ago, more than 80 NCC producer members have been given the opportunity to learn more about the NCC’s policy development and implementation process. As a result, many of those participants are involved in U.S. cotton’s central organization today.
Up to four producers from each major Cotton Belt region are chosen to attend the NCC’s annual meeting, see the NCC’s Washington, DC, operations and meet with key lawmakers.
Cotton Belt nematologists and plant pathologists meet annually to discuss their research and report on their nematode population surveys. The overall aim is to curb losses to nematodes across the Cotton Belt.
A special session on identifying and managing nematode problems was held at the 2004 Beltwide Cotton Production Conference. Information on nematodes, their distribution and control methods also can be found in the updated booklet, “Cotton Nematodes: Your Hidden Enemies” and at www.cotton.org/tech/pest/nematode.
Cotton Seedling Disease Research and Education Program
Bayer CropScience Grant: $110,000
This program helps determine losses to the seedling disease complex. That complex took 4.02 percent of the 2003 crop - a value of $336.6 million. The conditions in the Mid-South were especially severe in 2003 with Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee accounting for more than 50 percent – or $181.2 million – of the reported Cotton Belt losses.
The program also helps identify the basic disease spectrum in each locale and offers fungicide use and application methods in each state. More information is available to producers, consultants and others through the brochure, “Know Your Seedling Diseases,” and at www.cotton.org/tech/pest/seedling.
This program provides journalists with a well-equipped newsroom to enhance their information gathering and dissemination at the annual NCC-coordinated Beltwide Cotton Conferences.
The 60-plus contingent of writers and broadcasters who cover this forum help transfer needed information to industry members ahead of the Conferences’ proceedings. Rapid adoption of proven technology and cultural practices is essential for U.S. cotton producers to maintain optimum efficiency and maximize profit potential.
Strategically placed kiosks at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences contain computers that provide Internet access. This enables conferees to check their email and browse the World Wide Web.
Several special projects support the NCC-coordinated Beltwide Cotton Conferences, including one that underwrites its Internet Quickstop.
Several special projects are still assisting the U.S. cotton industry even though the projects’ annual grants have ceased.
The NCC still publishes the quarterly online Journal of Cotton Science, which has evolved into a premier database for multidisciplinary cotton research. The Foundation continues to distribute volumes in its Cotton Reference Book Series, which can be ordered online.
The NCC and The Cotton Foundation recently completed a brochure on the Worker Protection Standard (WPS) that is now part of the curriculum for Progressive Farmer magazine’s Farm Safety Day Camp® program. The Farm Safety Day Camp is coordinated and sponsored by The Progressive Farmer Foundation and corporate sponsors, including The Cotton Foundation. The entire series of WPS newsletters and information sheets is available online.
A special project also made possible the creation of World of Cotton, which garners public recognition for the industry’s economic significance to this nation.
A number of other Foundation activities are considered special projects and supported by specific member firms. In the Chemical Evaluation Project, for example, USDA Agricultural Research Service scientists at the Southern Insect Management Lab in Stoneville, MS, are analyzing insecticides and application methods with the goal of helping producers lower their insect control costs.
Some other efforts helpful to cotton’s overall research and education effort include: the artificial rearing of southern crop insects and the cotton insect rearing and distribution programs; the ginning lab fiber analysis and the periodic development and distribution of various NCC-produced educational videotapes.
