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USDA now accepting Specialty Crop Block Grant proposals

The USDA will invest $72.9 million in the latest round of Specialty Crop Block Grant Initiative funding for the 2024 fiscal year.

USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Jenny Lester Moffitt made the announcement Monday as part of a Specialty Crop Competitiveness Initiative stakeholder roundtable in Grant, Michigan.

“Specialty crop producers have a unique set of challenges, pest challenges, of course, making sure that they have a labor workforce to be able to harvest and to plant and to pick the crop and process the crop,” she says.

Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Director tells Brownfield $2.4 million will be available for the state.

“The industries and the commodity groups are getting together, developing and submitting proposals to us that are going to meet the demands of the industry,” he says.

Diane Smith, head of the Michigan Apple Committee, says the grants help state and national specialty crop challenges.

“Michigan Apple Committee has utilized those dollars, nearly $1.5 million, over the last 10 years with about 17 projects all centered around consumer education,” she shares.

More than $1 billion has been invested in the initiative since it was created in the 2008 Farm Bill.

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