Young growers say being part of a trolled industry is taking its toll

Its detractors claiming the crop uses copious amounts of water and is unsuited to the dry climate of Australia, particularly during a drought.

Cotton Australia CEO, Adam Kay said they've been trying to tackle this perception head on - 'social licence' buzz words at the latest national Cotton Collective held in Griffith last week.

"We've been empowering our growers, especially our young growers to have a voice," Mr Kay said.

"Our communications team have been out in a number of areas running social media workshops with growers, helping them to tell their story."

Mr Kay said a crucial misconception was that cotton used more water than most other crops.

"The idea that cotton uses a lot more water is just not true and is an example of the misinformation that just keeps being parroted out there," Mr Kay said.

"Cotton is only middle of the pack, it uses the same amount of water as soy beans or corn, a lot less than some other crops."

"At the end of the day if our growers didn't grow cotton and they grew the next most profitable crop, corn or soy beans, all it would do is disadvantage them financially, less money would come into their district and they'd be paying less tax."

Mr Kay said the story the industry would like to see played out in the media and online was how water efficient Australia's cotton growers had become.

"We have the most water efficient cotton growers in the world," Mr Kay said.

"In the last 15 years we've had a 50 per cent increase in water use efficiency, we can produce 50pc more crop with a litre of water."

Mr Kay said growers felt there was so much pressure on them to be efficient and maximise production but not as much scrutiny was being put on environmental water holders.

"They're asking if there's the same scrutiny on the people who now own a 5th of the water in the basin, to use the water efficiently for the environment" Mr Kay said.

Growers at the cotton forum also asked the Murray Darling Basin Authority to better inform the public on how much water has been returned to the environment.

MDBA CEO, Phillip Glyde agreed the authority needed to do more in that area but said it could be challenging when people already had their set perceptions.

"Sometimes it's hard to get out detailed and complex information out to the public domain when there's such strong and contested views," Mr Glyde said.

"I agree that the broader community don't recognise or understand the contribution farmers have made to this water reform."

2019 Young Cotton Achiever of the Year finalist, Nick Beer, is a farm manager for Merrilong Pastoral Company at Spring Ridge.

He said improving cotton's social licence was important for the mental health of farmers.

"I think the biggest thing is the mental side of things and the bullying I suppose," Mr Beer said.

"You can get rid of social media off your phone but you can't avoid the papers, TV.

"It seems that everywhere you look there's something about the industry and it feels like people don't want to speak to us, they're not interested in putting the good stories out there."

Mr Beer said, like other cotton growers, he would like to show the public what they do.

"We've seen lots of cotton growers on social media say we're happy to open our farms up and let people come and have a look," Mr Beer said.

He said he thought cotton was being blamed for a lack of water because the growth in the industry coincided with the start of the drought.

"People don't consider how many jobs are in the cotton industry, how many families are sustained by the cotton industry and how many communities are propped up by the cotton industry," he said.

Cotton Australia, Supply Chain Consultant, Brooke Summers said despite the industry being in the thick of the media debate on water, she's seeing more and more demand for Australian cotton.

"I put that down to Cotton Australia getting out there and telling our story more," Ms Summers said.

"One of the things we've learned is we have a really great sustainability story and we've been good at telling it, we have data to back up claims around pesticide use, water use."

She said sustainability was becoming more important for brands.

"Ikea uses one per cent of the world's cotton and growers who are not certified as sustainable cannot sell their cotton to Ikea," she said.

While, six major Australian brands have committed to sourcing 100pc sustainable cotton by 2020.