USDA Makes Crop Protection a Priority With Big Investment

USDA is investing more than $70 million in 357 projects in Fiscal Year 2025 through the 2008 Farm Bill’s Plant Protection Act’s Section 7721 program. The work will strengthen the country’s defenses against plant pests and diseases, safeguard the U.S. nursery system, and enhance pest detection and mitigation efforts.

Out of the 357 projects funded this year, 339 are managed by the Plant Pest and Disease Management and Disaster Prevention Program (PPDMDPP) and 18 are supported through the National Clean Plant Network (NCPN). PPDMDPP projects are organized around specific goal areas that represent critical needs and opportunities to strengthen against, prevent, detect, and mitigate invasive pests and diseases. Whereas the NCPN helps maintain the infrastructure needed for pathogen, disease, and pest-free-certified planting materials, benefiting U.S. specialty crop producers.

Some of the projects selected for funding this year include:

• $5,795,692 to support detector dog team training and maintenance for domestic pest detection in California, Florida, and nationally.
• $1,569,773 to support national honey bee surveys in 44 states and territories.
• $1,680,121 to support stone fruit and orchard pest detection surveys in 10 states, including California, Colorado, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington.
• $904,160 for various survey, detection tools, control methods development for forest pests, and outreach to protect forests from harmful pests in Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
• $1,459,606 to support surveys and enhance identification technologies for invasive defoliating moths in 16 states, including Alaska, California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina, and Washington.
• $1,600,921 for certified, disease-free citrus planting materials to protect American nurseries and growers from economic losses caused by citrus plant diseases.

USDA plans to allocate approximately $10 million for rapid responses to invasive pest emergencies, addressing pests with high economic consequences. In the past, USDA has used these funds to respond quickly to threats like the box tree moth, spotted lanternfly, Asian longhorned beetle, and invasive fruit flies.

For more details, visit aphis.usda.gov/ppa-projects.