Specialty-crop producers now have access to $72.9 million in block grants through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, the department announced recently.
The Specialty Crop Block Grants are intended to "fund innovative projects designed to support the expanding specialty crop sector and explore new market opportunities for U.S. food and agricultural products," the USDA states in the Jan. 25 announcement. The USDA defines specialty crops as vegetables, fruits, tree nuts and other crops "cultivated or managed and used by people for food, medicinal purposes, and/or aesthetic gratification."
"These specialty crop block grants will help states and territories target resources locally to increase the competitiveness of the specialty crops sector and support specialty crop growers through marketing, education, and research," Jenny Lester Moffitt, USDA Marketing and Regulatory Programs Under Secretary, said in the announcement.
The funds will be allocated to U.S. states and territories based on a formula considering both specialty-crop acreage and production value, the USDA states. Producers interested in receiving a SCBG should apply directly through their state's department of agriculture. The agency's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), which oversees the grant program, maintains a list of state contacts on its website, according to the USDA.
Smaller farms and ranches, farmers and ranchers just starting out, veterans, socially disadvantaged producers and under-served communities are encouraged to apply; applicants for grants intended for any of these groups should involve the beneficiary in the application and project-development processes, AMS states in the announcement.
Applications for the grants must be submitted electronically via www.grants.gov, according to the announcement. The deadline to apply is 11:59 p.m. ET May 3.
"Since 2006 when the program began," Moffitt said in the announcement, "USDA has invested more than $953 million through these block grants to fund nearly 11,000 projects that increased the long-term success of producers and created new and better markets for specialty crops in the U.S. and abroad."
