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The cotton production course project continues to provide a highly regarded, externally offered, tertiary level course specific to cotton production.  The Cotton CRC units have been faithfully delivered via The University of New England and fulfil all the requirements of materials, student guidance, on-line delivery and assessment.

Significant development of the course and upgrading of the notes has been achieved over the past three year.  Highlights include the rewriting of the Cotton and the Environment manual to better reflect the Best Management Practices (BMP) program of the cotton industry and two completely new topics; ‘Precision Agriculture’ in the Applied Cotton Production unit and ‘Climate Change’ in the Cotton and the Environment unit.

Numerous improvements have been made via the new UNE on-line delivery system (Blackboard®) and anti-plagiarism software (turnitin®).  Many references and linkages have been introduced that direct students to Cotton CRC publications.  There have also been regular upgrades to lectures, notes and assignments.

The Cotton Farming Systems Unit has been modified in response to student evaluations to include a much greater emphasis on economics and business in the on-farm consultancy exercise at the residential school.  The residential schools in all the cotton units remain the best part of the course according to student evaluations.

External student numbers have been low over the past three years, though this is reflected in the environment challenges faced during this period and the resulting reduced acreage. During the period of this project the course graduated ten students per year with the equivalent of a Cotton Production Course certificate, whereas 20 to 25 were graduating previously. Additionally approximately 90 on-campuses, undergraduate students have completed the Applied Cotton Production unit as part of their agriculture degrees over the past three years.