Helping the Nursery Industry & CRP Deadline Extension

Helping the Nursery Industry & CRP Deadline Extension

The state’s $300 million nursery and greenhouse industry has been awarded $122,000 in agreements by the WSDA to fund ten research projects supporting the industry. Five of the projects are carryovers from previous years, five are new contracts for research beginning in July 2013 - WSU will be directing four of these. One of the projects would assist the nursery industry in studying the possibilities of growing beargrass under standard nursery conditions. Beargrass is a native plant found on the Olympic Peninsula and regions of the Cascades and the Rocky Mountains, and is mostly collected from plants in the wild to be used in residential and commercial landscapes. Another of the new projects is one sponsored by the Washington State Nursery Landscape Association to establish a voluntary sustainable landscape and nursery certification program.

Due to an overwhelming producer interest the deadline for the Conservation Reserve Program sign-up has been extended by one week. Rather than the original deadline of April 6th, producers now have through Friday, April 13th to enroll in the CRP. Juan Garcia, Farm Service Agency Deputy Administrator for Farm Programs talks about the CRP deadline extension.

GARCIA: We do have 6 1/2 million acres expiring this year and based on the sign-up numbers to date there’s been a lot of demand for enrollment and re-enrollment of acres into this program. We want to give producers and county office personnel ample time to discuss the program provisions, and of course submit the most competitive offer possible for our producers out there.

I’m Lacy Gray and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network. 

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