Did you know?
Petioles are ideal for monitoring nitrate-N and potassium concentrations until mid-flowering. Beyond flowering, leaf tests are a better method of monitoring crop nutrition.
The Socio-economic Impact of the Australian Cotton Industry on Regional Communities in NSW and Queensland
Measuring Community Wellbeing in ‘Cotton Communities’: The Socio-Economic Impact of the Australian Cotton Industry on Selected Regional Communities
This project is seen as providing an analytical underpinning of strategies and programs to build better cotton communities. In doing so, the task involves understanding the role that the cotton industry plays in those communities, but also consideration of the potential of the whole regional economy. That is extended to the linkages between those economic conditions and the wellbeing of the community.
Better knowledge of regional communities is essential for shaping appropriate strategies for improving those economies and communities. This project is intended to provide that knowledge to key stakeholders and provide a basis for the on-going updating of information and monitoring of performance. This is no easy task. The declining availability of official statistics at the regional level and less frequent collection is one major problem. The other is the inherent variability in regional economies from year to year due to seasonal market, and other conditions that make it difficult to separate trends from variability.
Cotton communities have gained over recent decades from the growth and development of the cotton industry with world class competitive attributes. Other agricultural industries have similar status. In most rural regions, there are few industries not related to the natural resource base with world class competitive status. This remains a fundamental weakness of those regions with a highly specialised industry structure and reliance on a few commodities.
The key development challenge is to balance two key factors to:
- maintain the competitive advantage of existing industries, and
- develop new competitive strengths that are less dependent on the natural resource base and service other markets.
We see this project as providing some insights into how those objectives might be achieved, and how the benefits of the development will flow through to the whole community. By interacting closely with key agencies, industries and businesses in the regions, this work should translate into better informed development strategies and programs.
To undertake this brief, we provide a team that includes:
- Knowledge and analytical skills related to regional economies;
- Knowledge and analytical skills related to regional communities; and
- Planning skills.
This combination of skills and experience enables both the analytical and applications work to be of high quality and practical. The team also brings with it a history of work in these regions that provides a strong platform to support this project.
