Cotton (primarily Gossypium hirsutum L. and Gossypium barbadense L.) is the leading textile fiber in the world and the second most important oilseed. Widely grown in the U.S., it is a significant contributor to the U.S. economy. It is grown in 17 states from Virginia to California and from Missouri to the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, covering an estimated
15.7 million acres in 2000. In the U.S., cotton is the fourth most important crop (raw product value 5 to 6 U.S.$ billion/yr; economic impact U.S.$15 to 25 billion/yr), the most important industrial crop (the underpinning of the
U.S. textile industry, i.e., several hundred thousand jobs of about U.S.$80 billion/yr), and the second most important oilseed crop. Clearly, productivity and profits from cotton fiber, cottonseed, and their products are important overall to the U.S. economy, but especially to that of rural America. Technological advances have enabled U.S. cotton producers to achieve unparalleled production efficiency. Approximately half of that efficiency is attributable to genetic improvement through breeding. The increases followed rapid producer adoption of new technologies that emerged from cotton research and development at public institutions and in private industry. Production in the U.S. has, however, been recently characterized as increasingly variable and unstable. It is relevant, therefore, to determine the cause or causes of those problems and to propose appropriate solution(s). This proposal presents a coordinated plan of research to be undertaken during the 5 yr period 2001-2006 based upon a consensus of public and private cotton researchers.