Specialty crop grants announced; comments from WSU's new small grain economist

Washington Ag Today October 5, 2011 The Washington State Department of Agriculture says it has received word the USDA has approved the state’s application for 3.1 million dollars in grant funding for projects to support Washington’s fruit, vegetable and horticulture growers.

The USDA Special Crop Block Grant will fund 20 projects managed by the department and other Washington organizations to benefit the third largest specialty crop industry in the nation. Awards for individual projects range from 62-thousand to 250-thousand dollars.

A full list of the projects is available on the WSDA website.

Dr. Randall Fortenbery, who was selected to fill the Small Grain Economics Endowed Chair at Washington State University, addressed the Washington Grain Commission meeting last week to talk about some of his initial plans. In an interview he said.

Fortenbery: “The first one will help me learn a lot about the state of Washington and that is trying to measure the impact of wheat production on the overall Washington economy. How big a player is wheat and then agriculture more generally in the Washington economy? And who is it impacting and how big is that impact?”

Fortenbery came from Wisconsin where he did a lot of work on modern commodity markets and which is something he wants to continue to focus on. But he will also get direction from producers.

Fortenbery: “A large part of my research interest will be driven by what they view as the interesting questions and problems of the day and much of my outreach activities will be responding to that as well.”

The Washington Grain Commission funded the creation of the Small Grain Economics Endowed Chair.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on Northwest Aginfo Net.

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