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AUS: GM COTTON RESEARCHERS WIN AWARD
Source: CSIRO, Media Release
http://csiro.au/news/Cotton-researchers-win-CSIRO-top-award.html
Cotton researchers win CSIRO's top award
The team of researchers responsible for developing a new variety of cotton which now constitutes 80 per cent of Australia's total annual cotton crop was today presented with CSIRO's highest award for excellence – the Chairman’s Medal for Research Achievement.
Based in Narrabri, NSW, CSIRO Plant Industry's Cotton Breeding and Biotechnology Team spent years developing the new more environmentally friendly, disease-resistant, high-yield variety – Sicot 71BRF.
CSIRO Chairman, Simon McKeon, said the team's success in producing a variety which now – just two years after its commercial release – dominates the industry landscape, highlights CSIRO's continuing ability to deliver the advancements required to maintain the Australian industry's competitiveness.
"In providing a highly desirable package of advantages over other cotton varieties, the team has delivered significant economic, social and environmental benefits to growers throughout Australia," Mr McKeon said.
"In 2010–11 the industry’s high adoption rate of Sicot 71BRF benefited the industry and the regional communities dependent on cotton production (gross value $1.7b; marginal value $61m), and the flow-on is helping many rural communities recover from a period of decline brought on by prolonged drought.
"The team's research also shows more yield is being obtained with the same water inputs – so, Sicot 71BRF is contributing to a better environmental profile for cotton."
Sicot 71BRF also contains traits that make it resistant to Helicoverpa pests thereby reducing the need to use insecticides by 80 per cent.
"In providing a highly desirable package of advantages over other cotton varieties, the team has delivered significant economic, social and environmental benefits to growers throughout Australia," said Mr Simon McKeon, CSIRO Chairman.
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