07/24/08 Specialty crop research money

When the USDA decided to hold listening sessions in 2005 and 2006 they heard from specialty crop farmers in Idaho and across the nation. What USDA heard was not talk about subsidies or government payments. BEWICK "The industry weren't asking from direct payments for farmers. They were asking for research development and extension." USDA's Tom Bewick says there is now additional money set aside for specialty crop scientific research, 230 million dollars over the course of the new farm bill. Bewick says there are five areas to be funded by this new research initiative. BEWICK "Research in plant breeding, genetics and genomics to improve crop characteristics. The second is efforts to identify and address threats from pests and diseases including threats to specialty crop pollinators." A third area is increased productivity, efficiency and profits. Fourth would be new innovations in technology and fifth is monitoring and preventing food safety hazards in specialty products. Bewick says plant genomics, pest identification, technical advances and safety production will all receive about ten percent of the total specialty crop funding. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott