After nine years as Program Manager for the Australian cotton industry’s joint extension program – CottonInfo – Warwick Waters will finish in the role at the end of the month.
Since its inception in 2012, the CottonInfo program team has grown from just nine to today having more than 20 experts working to connect cotton growers, agronomists and industry with research and development outcomes.
Warwick said he was incredibly proud of the outcomes achieved by the CottonInfo team during his tenure.
“From the nearly 100 on-farm trials we’ve run, to the over 1000 extension activities the team have delivered , there have been a lot of highlights over the past nine years,” he said.
“It has been a real privilege to be involved in an extension program that is supported and resourced by a collaboration of organisations, and works with growers and consultants who are actively looking for better ways of doing things.
“They turn up to set the priorities for R&D investment, provide access to their farms and give their time to support projects, then engage with the researchers to see how they can apply research outcomes.
“I see great opportunities for cotton extension with advances in our ability to do more research on farms with less effort and to utilise industry data sets to inform better practice.”
CRDC Executive Director Dr Ian Taylor – who helped to establish CottonInfo as CRDC’s then Development and Delivery Manager, and served as the inaugural CottonInfo Program Manager during its first 18 months – said Warwick’s experience in extension and research across agriculture, both in Australia and overseas, has proved instrumental in leading the program.
“I’d like to acknowledge and thank Warwick for his commitment to the CottonInfo program, and I am equally pleased to announce that he will not be lost to the industry,” Ian said.
“From 1 July he will be taking on a role with CRDC as Innovation Process Advisor, assisting in the initial implementation of the new CRDC Strategic RD&E Plan 2023-28.
“CRDC will be seeking to appoint an extension specialist to support the CottonInfo team shortly.”
