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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.
Producer Information Exchange (P.I.E.) 
| Southeastern cotton producers saw farming operations and learned about water supply/use in California’s San Joaquin Valley as part of the 2006 PIE program.
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Bayer CropScience Grant: $125,000
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 be exposed to the diverse and innovative practices of the hosting region, providing them with more competitive technology and farming methods. For example, they get new ideas and perspectives in 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 Leadership Program DuPont Crop Protection Grant: $115,000  | | Members of the 2005-06 Cotton Leadership Class: Will Coley, Mitch Hensley, Jeff Hux, Tim Cox, Steve Bullard, Kevin Nelson, Heath Watson, Toby Robertson, Jason Ward, Forester Adams. | 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. During the tours in the U.S. Cotton Belt, the Washington, DC-based staffers get to 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.
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  | Members of the 2006 Policy Education Program are front row (l to r): Andrew Burleson, Shane Isbell, Dan Burns and Sam Whitaker; back row (l to r): Buddy Allen, Art Heiden, August Guteller, Paul Shirah and Stacy Smith.
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Syngenta Crop Protection Grant: $60,000
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 2006, they visited NCC’s Washington, DC, operations and met with key Congressional members and received communications training at Syngenta’s headquarters in North Carolina.
Cotton Nematode Research and Education Program  | The reniform nematode is an unseen but costly cotton pest |
Bayer CropScience Grant: $50,000
Losses to nematodes have steadily increased over the past decade or so, due mostly to the spread of the reniform nematode. Nematode losses for 2005 were reported at 1,178,280 bales valued at about $460 million. 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 updated web site, www.cotton.org/tech/pest/nematode. Reports given at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences, such as those presented at the 2006 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. Fortunately, losses to seedling disease were down slightly in 2005 due to good conditions at planting at many locations. Reported losses, though, still amounted to 470,154 bales valued at $183.4 million dollars. 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’s updated web site, www.cotton.org/tech/pest/seedling.
Ongoing Special Project Contributions Several Foundation members are supporting the NCC-coordinated Beltwide Cotton Conferences through special projects. Monsanto sponsors the forum’s newsroom, helping the 60-plus contingent of writers and broadcasters in their efforts to help transfer needed information to industry members ahead of the Conferences’ proceedings. Monsanto lent its support to the Confex Podium system, launched in 2006, where conference reports are made available via the Internet to conferees.  | | NCC President/CEO Mark Lange is interviewed by farm radio broadcasters Gary Dijuiseppe, left, and Don Molino. |
n addition, DuPont Crop Protection sponsors the conferences’ online and on-site registration; Bayer CropScience sponsors the forum’s continental breakfasts, Valent supplies the coffee breaks, BASF covers the audio-visual equipment and Syngenta supported the Internet Quickstop kiosks.
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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