By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent COLUMBUS, Ind. — The USDA announced last week 28 grants to solve specialty crop problems through research and extension activities. Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan made the announcement Oct. 25 at the farm of Dick O’Neill in Columbus.
“I, among others was extremely excited when the 2008 farm bill passed when we had a whole lot of new initiatives around specialty crops,” Merrigan said.
She was referring to the inclusion of a specialty crops title in the last farm bill. The title added $3 billion to support specialty crops, including various grant programs, pest and disease prevention efforts, organic research and trade assistance for asparagus growers hurt by unfair trade.
Michigan Apple Committee Executive Director Denise Donahue praised the work U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) did at the time to recognize the importance of specialty crops. “The Michigan Apple Committee is very appreciative of Senator Stabenow for working a specialty crops title into the farm bill,” she said.
The grants announced last week are part of the specialty crop research initiative (SCRI), created by the farm bill. The grants are handled through the USDA’s Institute on Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Specialty crops include fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, nursery crops and floriculture.
According to Merrigan, the grants give priority to projects that are “multi-state, multi-institutional or transdisciplinary.” NIFA also issued the following statement from NIFA Director Roger Beachy.
“The specialty crop industry plays an enormously important part in American agriculture and is valued at approximately $50 billion every year,” he said. “These projects will be key to providing specialty crop producers with the information and tools they need to successfully grow, process, and market safe and high quality products.”
The five research areas include plant breeding, genetics and genomics; addressing threats from pests and diseases; improving production efficiency, productivity, and profitability; developing new innovations and technologies; and developing methods to improve food safety.
The University of Tennessee-Knoxville, for example, received a grant of $50,000, awarded to Plant Sciences in the Institute of Agriculture. The project is to develop a commercial processing industry for edamame, or fresh green soybeans, in the eastern United States. The goal is to improve the nutritional composition and availability of locally grown edamame soybean varieties to small farmers and ultimately to consumers. UT professor Carl Sams is heading up the project.
Another recipient is Michigan State University for $46,050. Juliana Tuell, a post-doctoral research associate and entomologist, described it as a planning grant.
“This is a small grant designed to get everyone together so that we can develop a five-year project involving about a dozen different collaborators from across the country,” she said.
She is coordinating the project out of Rufus Isaacs’ laboratory. She said this work is really in preparation for a much larger project and grant request, which could be as much as $10 million. She said that would pay for the work of about a dozen researchers over a five year period.
She said the researchers want to characterize native bee communities in areas where many specialty crops are grown, including California, Oregon, British Columbia, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Florida and Michigan.
Other institutions awarded grants include the University of Illinois-Urbana, $1.5 million; Purdue University, $2.4 million; and Ohio State University-Columbus, $2 million.
A complete list of grant recipients and amounts is available at the NIFA website at www.nifa.usda.gov |
