Climate Smart Cotton – reducing nitrous oxide emissions with enhanced efficiency fertilisers

Project dates: 2024 - 2028

This project aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cotton production systems to enable Australia to be the preferred international supplier of low emissions fibre. A key objective of the project is to demonstrate to cotton farmers that use of enhanced efficiency fertilisers (EEFs) would significantly reduce their emissions of nitrous oxide.

The project will work directly with the cotton industry and could have application in other irrigated crops, such as maize, wheat and rice and potentially horticulture.

Three outcomes of the project are that by 2028 Partnerships and Innovations grants will have:

  • Increased the number and area of Australia’s agriculture sector and land managers who have trialled, developed or implemented innovative technologies of sustainable agricultural practices that enhance soil, water and vegetation.
  • Increased the adoption of practice what have or will build resilience to the impacts of climate change, increased carbon sequestration and/or reduce emissions in farming systems.
  • Have supported the operationalisation and uptake of industry sustainability frameworks and credentials and will have increased the number of sustainable agricultural practices that meet evolving market access requirements.

Project team

Project partners

Project funding

  • Climate-Smart Agriculture Program Partnerships and Innovation Grants
  • Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC)


Cotton crop