USDA Provides More than $1.3 Million to Hawaii to Support Projects that Protect Agriculture and Natural Resources

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USDA Provides More than $1.3 Million to Hawaii to Support Projects that Protect Agriculture and Natural Resources

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is allocating more than $1.3 million to Hawaii as part of its effort to strengthen the nation’s infrastructure for pest detection and surveillance, identification, and threat mitigation, and to safeguard the U.S. nursery production system. Overall, USDA is providing more than $70 million in funding this year to support 372 projects in 49 states, Guam, and Puerto Rico. USDA provides this funding under the authority of the Plant Protection Act Section 7721.

“Hawaii has more than 7,000 farms and grows more than 40 crops commercially. Hawaii is the main source of domestically grown coffee. Protecting Hawaii’s agricultural industry is essential,” said USDA Under Secretary Jenny Moffitt. “These projects will help Hawaii protect its resources and contribute to keeping our nation’s agricultural economy strong.”

These funds will support projects covering a range of plant health and pest mitigation activities, including:

  • $735,079 to develop integrative identification methods and molecular diagnostic tools for invasive fruit flies in the state;
  • $275,110 to support the development and evaluation of Hawaii and Puerto Rico’s response to the coffee berry borer, including biological control;
  • $175,694 to disseminate microbial insecticide for invasive fruit fly management;
  • $165,041 to develop tools to determine the prevalence of Spinosad resistance in invasive fruit flies in Hawaii and test alternative bait-insecticides; and
  • $40,000 to support the state’s sweet potato clean plant program, which provides plant stocks to protect the sweet potato commodity.

Since 2009, USDA has supported more than 4,800 projects and provided nearly $740 million in PPA 7721 funding. Collectively, these projects allow USDA and its partners to quickly detect and rapidly respond to invasive plant pests and diseases. These projects also help our country maintain the infrastructure necessary to ensure disease-free, certified planting materials are available to U.S. specialty crop producers.

View the fiscal year 2022 Plant Protection Act’s Section 7721 spending plans on the USDA, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service website: www.aphis.usda.gov/ppa-projects.

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