Project overview

As production costs rise and sustainability expectations increase, growers need clearer information about how yield, inputs, risk, and emissions interact to influence profitability. The economics and carbon analysis project builds on earlier work to provide growers with practical tools for understanding the economics of their cotton systems, while also exploring how carbon emissions can be measured and reduced at the field scale. 

This project analyses the latest season of on-farm performance data to map the relationships between yield, cost, water use, and nitrogen use, giving growers better visibility of the financial ‘levers’ within their system. At the same time, it tests leading greenhouse gas (GHG) calculators to assess their suitability for estimating emissions per bale ,an increasingly important metric for market access and sustainability reporting. 

Together, these insights will support more profitable, resilient, and environmentally responsible cotton farming, helping growers benchmark their performance within an evolving industry landscape. 

Outcomes and achievements

• Extended economic analysis to include up to the 2023/24 season, refining national benchmarks
• Developed yield–cost relationships and gross margin risk profiles for integration into CSD-CROP
• Analysed correlations between profitability and resource-use efficiency (WUE, NUE)
• Assessed three field-level carbon calculators (Cool Farm Tool, C-GAF, AIA EAP)
• Seek to produce a prototype emissions-intensity per bale reporting framework
• Identify key data gaps and industry needs for future sustainability reporting. 

Project status

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