Florida Divvies Up Specialty Crop Grants

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam announced more than $4.3 million in Specialty Crop Grants from USDA will support 23 projects in Florida. The grants will fund projects that enhance the competitiveness of Florida’s specialty crops.

“Through the Specialty Crop Block Grants, we are able to foster creativity and innovation in Florida agriculture,” said Commissioner Putnam. “These projects will, in turn, support the growth of agriculture industry, creating job opportunities for Floridians.”
Initiatives supported by Specialty Crop Block Grants are intended to:

• Increase child and adult nutrition knowledge and consumption of specialty crops;
• Improve efficiency and reduce costs of distribution systems;
• Assist entities in the specialty crop distribution chain in developing “Good Agricultural Practices,” “Good Handling Practices” and “Good Manufacturing Practices;”
• Support specialty crop research, including efforts that focus on conservation and environmental outcomes;
• Enhance food safety;
• Develop new and improved seed varieties and specialty crops;
• Manage pest and disease; and
• Develop organic and sustainable production practices.

The 23 projects selected for grants will help strengthen the market for Florida specialty crops, including fruits, vegetables, horticulture and nursery crops.
The projects were selected by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, in coordination with members of an external review committee representative of Florida’s specialty crop industry. Specialty Crop Block Grant recipients include:

Florida Agriculture in the Classroom

•  Develop a book about Florida specialty crops to teach students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade the benefits of healthy eating habits and to introduce them to specialty crops grown in Florida.

Florida Nursery Growers and Landscape Association

• Provide training in production, marketing and financial risk to specialty crop commodities in Florida and provide general financial information as well as address commodity specific issues through the Florida Agriculture Financial Management Conference.

Florida Specialty Crop Foundation

• Work to improve promotion and marketing of Florida-grown specialty crop fresh produce by positioning it as a “local” choice with consumers. The project will center on market research, including an economic impact analysis and a variety of focus group studies.
• Provide a unified context under which Farm Labor Contractors and farm managers can understand their roles and responsibilities in employing and managing farmworkers by further developing the Farm Labor Contractor training program and making it sustainable into the future.
• Develop an improved understanding of the basic biology of Groundnut ringspot virus (GRSV) and its thrips vectors in Florida and facilitate development and testing of management practices to reduce grower losses.
• Develop integrated strategies that incorporate non-copper bactericides with bacteriophage and plant defense elicitors and  improve application strategies to limit disease development while minimizing bactericide resistance in Xanthomonas populations.

Florida Tomato Committee

• Help reverse sales erosion of Florida tomatoes while identifying opportunities to expand new markets by developing customized promotions with a strong educational component for television, radio and news media.

University of Florida

• Work to improve dialog among farmers, policy makers and industry members regarding the critical needs of the small farms specialty crops industry by expanding outreach efforts, expanding the Small Farms Food Safety Implementation Team and providing partial support for the statewide Florida Small Farms and Alternative Enterprises Conference.
• Test the feasibility of using harvest aids to increase the efficiency of harvest labor and using hydrocooling to cool strawberries more quickly, thereby reducing strawberry and vegetable harvest losses.
• Work to expand blueberry production in Florida by identifying molecular markers associated with low chilling requirements that would ultimately allow selection of low-chill cultivars through a marker assisted selection strategy.
• Work to increase blueberry production in Florida by studying the effects of time and intensity of summer pruning and developing pruning recommendations for growers throughout the state.
• Investigate possible replacement of Temik aldicarb for managing soil-born nematodes and disease problems in potatoes.
• Explore effective crop protectants for avocado threatened by attacks from the red bay ambrosia beetle, the vector of laurel wilt, and determine if these protectants cause secondary pest outbreaks.
• Evaluate several new nematode management tools for control of root-knot nematodes on cut foliage and ornamental crops.
• Establish best management practices for nitrogen rate and application methods on peach tree growth and fruit quality.
• Determine the combination of cultivation and herbicides during the fallow period that best reduces nutsedge populations.
• Help Florida tomato growers reduce yield losses due to whiteflies and Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus (TYLCV) and provide guidelines for integrated control of whiteflies attacking tomatoes grown in protected agriculture.
• Test and verify the Predator-In-First approach, which involves the release of specific predatory mites on uninfested seedlings before transplanting, for effective and environmentally sound control of invasive thrips on pepper and potentially similar crops including tomato and cucumber.
• Develop production guidelines and cost savings for the use of reclaimed waste water to grow containerized ornamentals.
• Increase the breeding efficiency of new nematode resistant peach rootstocks through horticultural evaluation.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Research Service

• Combat huanglongbing (HLB) by eliminating HLB bacteria from nursery stocks using highly sensitive detection technology, coupled with effective Las-eradicant compounds and thermotherapy; applying thermotherapy to the Murraya nursery industry to eliminate low titer infections of Las, thereby revitalizing the Murraya industry; large scale verification and implementation of chemical and thermal control of citrus HLB by developing and using cost-effective technology; and improving Las culture in vitro, conducting functional genomics to elucidate molecular mechanisms of HLB disease.
• Develop an antimicrobial treatment to reduce a psyllid-vectored bacterium that causes citrus greening, by optimizing the penetrant/antimicrobial mixtures based on tree size and the most effective combination of compounds.

Communities

• Development of community gardens in urban core areas.

Click here for more information about the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, administered by the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). 

Source: FDACS