Did you know?
In the last 10 years the introduction of transgenic cotton and IPM has resulted in a 80% reduction in pesticide use which has had a positive effect on biodiversity in and around cotton.
The "Sustaining Rural Communities National Conference" held at the Crossing Theatre, Narrabri, NSW proved a success.
Speakers discussed many topical issues that rural communities face on a day to day basis, including severe ongoing drought, significant changes in government policy especially those relating to water and carbon and the mineral resource boom.
Judith Stubbs from Stubbs and Associates discussed the impacts of federal water policy and climate change on irrigated agricultural communities in the Murray Darling Basin. Judith pointed out that agriculture accounts for one-third of employment in statistical local areas in the Murray Darling Basin and if a major reduction in water availability occurred and crops such as cotton were replaced by dryland cropping or dryland grazing between 2,000 - 7,000 jobs will be lost in those communities.
Peter Shergold a Macquarie Group Foundation Professor from the Centre for Social Impact, University of NSW addressed the need for strong leadership skills in rural Australia. Peter outlined the five qualities that lead to successful leaders they included, collegiality, execution, persistence authenticity and pride.
Cotton CRC Research Director, Dr Paula Jones said the conference was a great success with positive responses from all delegates.
"The conference provided a platform to share ideas on how to strengthen our rural communities".
"It is now the ideal time to take action, many great concepts were discussed and we need to turn then into a reality in order to see change".
"Next year we hope to come together again and explore the actions which were implemented and how they were received by the wider community", concluded Dr Jones.
The conference was convened and sponsored by the Cotton Catchment Communities Cooperative Research Centre (Cotton CRC) and the Cotton Research and Development Corporation, with additional sponsorship from (among others) UNE, AgriFood Skills Australia, and the Namoi Catchment Management Authority.
Dr Jones said that reports (including audio recordings) of the proceedings of the conference were becoming available on the Cotton CRC Web site: http://www.cottoncrc.org.au. People who would like to be involved in the active "Sustaining Rural Communities Network" that was established at the conference can contact her on (02) 6799 2477.
