Shelter for ripe cotton is all over the place (10)
I believe the answer is:
protection
'shelter' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'ripe cotton is all over the place' is the wordplay.
'is all over the place' indicates anagramming the letters.
'ripe'+'cotton'='ripecotton'
'ripecotton' is an anagram of 'PROTECTION'.
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for protection that I've seen before include "Way to extort money criminally" , "Defence; patronage" .)