Ord GM cotton impresses

PRODUCTION trials of genetically modified cotton undertaken near Kununurra have highlighted its potential as a commercial crop in the Ord River irrigation area.

GM cotton could potentially replace sugar growing as the backbone of the Ord, though its commercial potential is likely to hit a brick wall of political opposition.

The progress with the GM cotton trials contrasts with the steady decline in the value of agricultural production in the Ord, to just $46.6 million in 2004.

The latest data from the Department of Agriculture shows that the area of sugar cane harvested fell for the third year running, and the value of sugar production also fell, to $16.4 million.

This year’s recovery in the world sugar price could reverse the downward trend, but the experience of the past decade indicates sugar is a marginal proposition.

Many sugar farmers supplement their income by growing a range of horticultural produce, such as rockmelons and watermelons, but the area planted with these crops has also been in decline.

The biggest growth in the Ord in the past few years has been sandalwood plantations, courtesy of listed investment managers TFS Corporation and Integrated Tree Cropping.

Sandalwood managers now control about one sixth of the 12,000 hectares in the Ord’s ‘stage 1’ area.

Tropical fruit production has also been on the rise, albeit from a small base, courtesy of a partnership between investment manager Rewards Group and Kununurra family company Kimberley Produce.

Rewards has planted about 550ha of mango and red flesh grapefruit orchards, and plans further expansion so that it can become a high-volume supplier to major retail chains.

Department of Agriculture cotton project manager Geoff Strickland said the latest GM cotton results were very encouraging.

“In essence we had a really good year,” he said.

Mr Strickland said the production yields achieved in the trials would make GM cotton commercially attractive.

“We reckon it’s about five times more profitable per hectare than sugar,” he said.

Despite these encouraging results, Agriculture Minister Kim Chance said WA’s moratorium on commercial GM crops would remain.

“GM cotton in the Ord is for research purposes only,” Mr Chance told WA Business News.

He noted that the national regulator, the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator, was yet to approve any GM cotton varieties for the tropics.

Mr Strickland said the cotton industry would only develop if large tracts of irrigated land were made available.

He said the ideal area would be 20,000ha but he believes the industry would be viable with 10,000ha.

The Ord’s ‘stage 2’ area, earmarked for future development, is about 30,000ha. This area is split 50:50 between Western Australia and the Northern Territory, and the NT government has banned cotton growing on its side of the border.

Cotton was the original large-scale crop grown in the Ord, in the early 1970s.

Production ceased in 1973 because natural pests decimated the crops, despite extensive chemical spraying.

New varieties of GM cotton are designed to be resistant to the major caterpillar pests that attack the crop.