By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor

VINCENNES, Ind. — Finding ways to lengthen the growing and sales year for specialty crop producers is foremost in plans for use of a possible $235,000 infusion of federal funding at the Southwest-Purdue Agricultural Center (SWPAC).

Purdue University Dean of Agriculture Jay Akridge said building high tunnel greenhouses would likely be the project the SWPAC tackles first, should Congress approve funding suggested by Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.). Akridge said much of Indiana’s specialty crop research – meaning, vegetables and fruits – goes on at the SWPAC.

The U.S. House approved its version of a yearly ag appropriations bill last week, a $123.8 billion measure (according to The Associated Press) that included Ellsworth’s $235,000 earmark.
Ellsworth said the Senate will approve its own bill, which then goes into conference with the House version for debate. Both houses must agree on one version to vote for as part of the overall federal spending budget by Sept. 30.

“People always want to attack the earmarks as something bad,” Ellsworth said, adding if elected officials didn’t request money for projects in their home states, some bureaucrat in Washington would decide spending priorities instead. “For the Congress(person) who drives these streets and sees the work (people in their district are) doing, I can defend these things better than some kid sitting in a booth in Washington.”

Having recently returned from Afghanistan, where he spent time with National Guard troops working with locals to teach better farming methods, he also said, “We’re putting resources and dollars into those folks improving their quality of life … while that’s very honorable, I think the American people want us to invest in agriculture here, as well.”

Last August, Ellsworth toured the SWPAC with House Ag Committee Chair Collin Peterson (D-Minn.). Congress approved $235,000 for the center in the 2009 budget, and Ellsworth is hoping for a repeat for fiscal year 2010 (the federal budget runs Oct. 1-Sept. 30).
Purdue and Vincennes University, which jointly run the SWPAC, originally asked Ellsworth to request $600,000 for staffing additions, equipment upgrades and continued technical assistance to specialty crop growers. “And, ultimately, to facilitate economic development” for those producers, Akridge said.

Ellsworth said it’s not odd for a request to be cut in House committee deliberations. When he helped propose the Farm Flex pilot in 2007, he originally asked for 10,000 acres in Indiana, but only 9,000 were approved. (Farm Flex allows farmers with tomato processing contracts to grow tomatoes on commodity acres without those acres losing their eligibility for federal subsidies when the farmers once again plant eligible crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat and the like.)

The positive of that, Ellsworth explained, is that representatives saw value in the program and Congress approved it for some other commodity-crop states as well. Farm Flex was incorporated into the 2008 farm bill and will endure for its term, at least.

By encouraging Indiana farmers in those areas hospitable to growing specialty fruits and vegetables, he said they can diversify their operations and area consumers will have access to more fresh, healthy local produce.

His press secretary, Elizabeth Farrar, also pointed out 40 percent of the U.S. population is within a day’s drive of Indiana.

“If I don’t have to transport those watermelons or tomatoes (as far), I don’t have to charge the consumer as much,” Ellsworth said. “There’s a lot of ‘wins’ here.”

This funding may also encourage more Vincennes students to consider agriculture as a career.

Akridge said the two universities have an agreement in which after two years of classes, a Vincennes student can transfer credits to attend Purdue. He also said faculty at the SWPAC teach ag classes at Vincennes.

While the center also does research on commodity crops, as do the other seven Purdue Agriculture Centers around Indiana, he said the southwestern region is “really the heart of the vegetable and specialty crop production in the state.”

Akridge added that Purdue as a whole is doing more with specialty crop production. The university is hiring three more faculty members to teach at its West Lafayette campus, but their research will likely be conducted at the SWPAC.

According to Jerry Fankhauser Jr., director of Purdue Ag Centers, Purdue bought the SWPAC land in 1979 and established the research program in 1990. Specialists at the site include a horticulturist, a plant pathologist and an entomologist, with an agronomist located on the campus of Vincennes University.