Findings released by The Australia Institute show a cotton industry in the Northern Territory will not provide significant employment or tax benefits and may cause more environmental harm than good if big cotton continues to expand.

The research showed it is unlikely a cotton industry in the NT could create a significant number of jobs, being one of the least labour-intensive sectors in agriculture and the wider economy.

Census data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that cotton growing employs 466 people nation-wide, 0.18% of the total agricultural workforce.

Below you can see Cotton employment compared to total agricultural employment in Australia.

"The reality is that cotton uses a lot of land, water and machinery but creates very few jobs," said Rod Campbell, Research Director at The Australia Institute.

"You would be hard pressed to find an industry with less employment potential for the Territory than cotton.

"Minister Manison has urged critics to consider the benefits of new irrigation developments. Our submission goes looking for those benefits and they just aren't there."

In March last year the NT government slashed approval times for land clearing permits from six months to six weeks in a bid to cut red tape and attract investment to fuel its ambitious plan to create a $40 billion economy by 2030.

Further to this, on Wednesday, the ABC reported alleged unauthorised land clearing for cotton farming deep in the NT bushlands.

Paul Burke, the chief executive of the NT Farmers Association, has been spearheading the expansion of the industry in the north.

He said it's a silver bullet crop that could rocket to a $200 million economy within the decade, helping small family farmers diversify from the cattle status quo, which has driven the Territory up until now.

However, satellite imagery shared with the ABC shows what appears to be land clearing without a permit, and two stations are being investigated by the Northern Territory government.

Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the reports of extensive land clearing were "very concerning".

"Land clearing is putting enormous pressure on Australia's native plants and animals.

"We need to put a stop to unauthorised land clearing to help protect our threatened species. There must be serious consequences for anyone who does the wrong thing," she said.

Wagiman woman Daphne Huddlestone, a Traditional Owner and ranger, has guarded the stone country that stretches around Pine Creek for decades.

Ms Huddlestone recalls in 2021 when her and a team of rangers were stopped in their tracks upon seeing hundreds of hectares of land had been cleared without their knowledge.

"As kids we used to come past here, now when we come past here and you look at it now, it's terrible.

"As we kept on coming past here, we just looked at it; they kept on knocking it, kept on knocking it [down].

"My heart is broken that there was (sic) trees here once upon a time and now it's all gone," Ms Huddlestone said.