They are young, committed and keen to drive change.

They are young, committed and keen to drive change. They are Australia's potential cotton leaders of the future. Earlier this year Cotton Australia, in partnership with the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC), put a call out across the industry for people with leadership aspirations to be a part of the Australian Future Cotton Leaders Program.

The goal was to support the coming together of a group of diverse individuals from across the entire cotton supply chain to work on challenges and issues facing the industry while developing their own leadership skills.

Participants network with industry, investigate enterprise case studies, meet existing leaders, learn from each other's project experiences and partner with an industry mentor. The key focus is the completion of an integrated industry project.

In Narrabri from Wednesday to Friday last week, participants met at the CRDC with Cotton Australia Chair, Joanne Grainger and CRDC Executive Director, Bruce Finney for the group's second face to face workshop.

With the recent release of the Cotton Australia Strategic Plan focusing on ensuring the industry's future human resource capacity is secured and effective communication and engagement, Ms Grainger described the coming together of focused young leaders from three states as "critical for the continued development of an innovative and sustainable industry."

She was supported by Mr Finney. "The people you see taking action in this program today will drive future benefits for the industry", he said.

Hoping to increase young people's involvement in industry issues, Narrabri cotton grower, Mr Matthew Norrie is using his project to establish a fresh communication model where young people receive information and input directly into the water policy debate.

"It is important to increase our knowledge about water access and its impact on our industry," Mr Norrie said. "We need to take every chance we can to input to water policy discussions so we can remain profitable and I am working up a new way of doing this with other young people in the cotton industry."

Program Manager from RuralScope, Jo Eady, said Cotton Australia and the CRDC are committed to continuing the program. Leaders are now sought to join the program as mentors.