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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.
Cotton Leadership Program DuPont Crop Protection Grant: $115,000  | | 2004-2005 Cotton Leadership Class participants are front row (l-r): Dale Cougot, Justin Cariker, Robert Oppenheim, Max Denning and Ron Lee, and back row (l-r): James Askew, Carlo Bocardo, Adam Hatley, Craig Moore and Debra Barrett. |
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.
Many of the 230 men and women who have participated in the program since its inception in 1983 have provided leadership in state, regional and national interest organizations. Some have served in the top positions of the NCC, Cotton Council International and The Cotton Foundation. 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 Staff Education/Orientation Program Monsanto Grant: $110,000 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 program’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 2005, a group of Washington, DC-based Congressional staffers will see cutting edge cotton production and processing operations, tour public and private research facilities, and visit with industry leaders on key issues facing the nation’s No. 1 food and fiber crop. The first tour will be in the Lubbock, TX, and Phoenix, AZ, areas, August 22-25 while another group will make stops in Raleigh, NC; Memphis, TN; Greenville, MS; and New Orleans, LA, August 30-September 2.
Cotton Counts Bayer CropScience Grant: $50,000  | Pennee Murphree, NCWC Southwest regional director, prepares to staff a Cotton Counts booth at the National Ag in the Classroom Conference in Indianapolis. |
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. The NCWC officers participated in a national Ag in the Classroom Conference and workshops in Indianapolis. 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.
Producer Information Exchange (P.I.E.) Bayer CropScience Grant: $125,000  | | Mid-South producers toured San Joaquin Valley operations in 2005. |
Nearly 750 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 Monsanto 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.
Uniform Harvest Aid Performance Evaluation DuPont, FMC, Nichino America, Uniroyal, Valent Grant: $70,000 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. It and other volumes in that series can be purchased from the Foundation by visiting http://www.cotton.org/cf/reference-books.cfm.
Policy Education Program Syngenta Crop Protection Grant: $60,000  | | While in Washington, DC, 2005 Policy Education Program participants attended a pro-CAFTA rally and visited with key lawmakers and Administration officials, including Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns (front row, third from right). |
Nearly 100 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. In July, they visited NCC’s Washington, DC, operations and met with key Congressional members.
Cotton Nematode Research and Education Program Bayer CropScience Grant: $50,000 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. Information on nematodes, their distribution and control methods can be found in the updated booklet, “Cotton Nematodes: Your Hidden Enemies” and at the project’s web site, www.cotton.org/tech/pest/nematode. Reports given at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences, such as those presented at the 2005 Cotton Disease Council, also help further the efforts to increase awareness of the nematode threat and the available controls.
Cotton Seedling Disease Research and Education Program Bayer CropScience Grant: $50,000 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 that project web site, www.cotton.org/tech/pest/seedling.
Technology Transfer through News Media
 | | Writers and broadcasters take advantage of the newsroom operation to file stories from the 2005 Beltwide Cotton Conferences in New Orleans. |
Monsanto Grant: $18,000
Rapid adoption of proven technology and cultural practices is essential for U.S. cotton producers to maintain optimum efficiency and maximize profit potential. 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.
Beltwide Cotton Conferences Internet Quickstop Syngenta Crop Protection Grant: $7,750 Strategically placed kiosks at the conferences contain computers that provide Internet access. This enables Beltwide Cotton Conference attendees to check their email and browse the World Wide Web.
Ongoing Special Project Contributions Several special projects continue to help strengthen the U.S. cotton industry even though the projects’ annual grants have ceased. Some special projects are still assisting the U.S. cotton industry even though the projects’ annual grants have ceased. The Foundation continues to distribute volumes in its Cotton Reference Book Series, which can be ordered online. 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. |
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