Beck Barnes

The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) has partnered with agriculture solutions company Avalo, whose platform accelerates the speed at which plants with key resiliency traits may be developed. Informed by nature and powered by AI, Avalo’s platform revolutionises plant breeding for climate-resilient crops, including cotton, by identifying key plant traits to develop seeds requiring less water and fertiliser.

Every production season offers a little different scenario than the one before. And on the topic of harvest preparation and timing, those little variables can cause great consternation for cotton producers. Just this year in the Mid-South, producers took advantage of an unusually warm and dry early spring window to plant – before a period of heavy rainfall set in. The net result is that a portion of the cotton planted in Mississippi in 2026 is several weeks behind the majority of the crop.