The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is allocating more than $2.5 million to Hawaii as part of a nationwide effort to strengthen the country’s infrastructure for pest detection, surveillance, and mitigation, as well as protect the U.S. nursery system. USDA is providing more than $70 million in funding this year to support 350 projects in 48 states, Guam, and Puerto Rico. The Plant Protection Act Section 7721 gives USDA the authority to provide this funding.“Hawaii has more than 7,000 farms operated on more than a million acres of farmland. It’s a major producer of macadamia, coffee, papaya and avocado,” said USDA Under Secretary Jenny Moffitt. “These projects will help Hawaii protect its resources and continue contributing to our strong national agricultural economy.”
These funds will support projects covering a range of plant health protection activities, including, but not limited to:
- $1.4 million to trap, identify and manage invasive fruit flies in the state;
- $492,183 to support Hawaii’s invasive-pest detector dog program;
- $275,110 to manage the coffee berry borer, an invasive pest that threatens Hawaii’s coffee bean industry, through the use of biological control organisms;
- $133,760 to respond to invasive snails and worms in Hawaii;
- $99,910 to develop a diagnostic catalog for invasive moth introductions in the state; and
- $51,225 to survey for and manage hala scale.
View the fiscal year 2023 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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