Developing proactive approaches to IPM in cotton production systems

This Integrated Pest Management (IPM) project is driven by the current use of pesticides in the cotton industry and the identified need to develop feasible sustainability targets in order to better report on environmental performance. The most common cotton pests managed with seed treatments or by spraying are mirids, thrips, mites, whiteflies and soil pests, and the chemicals registered for this use largely contribute to current pesticide use in cotton. Several of these chemicals are under review or have impacts on the environment and non-targets, hence the objective of this project is to review their use in the cotton production system (Year 1), identify research gaps and explore alternative management techniques to manage these pests (Years 2 & 3).