Pillar 2: People

Theme: Adoption and impact

Objective:
Adopt knowledge and technology through dedicated development and delivery pathways.

Impact:
In 2028, adoption has increased its rate, reach and effectiveness.

Moving innovations from their source to widespread practice change on cotton farms is critical to delivering a prosperous and sustainable future. To meet the challenges ahead, cotton growers will benefit from the effective extension, adoption and, where applicable, commercialisation of beneficial outcomes of CRDC's research and development investments.

Australian cotton is uniquely placed within agriculture to connect research and best practice information with growers through the industry's joint venture extension program, CottonInfo. CRDC invests in CottonInfo in partnership with Cotton Seed Distributors and Cotton Australia.

CottonInfo is pivotal in building relationships between innovation stakeholders, including researchers, growers and commercial providers. The Adoption and impact theme aims to build on that success and increase research adoption rate, reach and effectiveness.

Under this theme, we will continue collaborating to deliver a dynamic learning environment through the CottonInfo joint venture. Clever Cotton will see CottonInfo contributing to collaborative design through the new program structure, a greater emphasis on supporting solutions progress through technology readiness levels (TRLs) and the development of on-farm experimentation (OFE) to increase the utility of research outputs. When researchers and growers work together, we will improve research adoption pathways and ensure developments add value and meet the needs of growers.

This theme will connect industry extension capacity and support development activities and materials via dedicated technical leads. CottonInfo's technical leads are a valued conduit connecting researchers and cotton growers in regions.

It will also support capacity building and skills development to implement technology and innovation. It will help to ensure growers can adopt and apply research innovations and collaborate to benefit from co-design.

Outcomes:

  • By 2026, research outcomes are integrated into on-farm practice change at a faster rate
  • By 2028, uptake of technology is maximised through a diverse range of adoption pathways and commercialisation processes