Specialty Crop Grant Funding

Specialty Crop Grant Funding

I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

Under a one year extension to the 2008 Farm Bill the Washington State Department of Agriculture is expecting roughly $3 million in federal grant funding will be available to enhance the competitiveness of the state’s specialty crops. Rianne Perry, Administrator of the WSDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, talks about the two step application process.

PERRY: We request proposals, and we have a pretty simple form that we ask people to fill out and submit that to us. And then we will have those reviewed and we will select a smaller portion to submit full, more detailed proposals.

Private and non-profit organizations, commodity commissions and other public entities can request between $25 thousand to $250 thousand for projects that can be completed in one to three years. Perry explains what makes a proposed project eligible for funding.

PERRY: To be eligible the proposal needs to directly impact the specialty crop industries. It can’t benefit a specific farmer, or a specific organization. It needs to benefit an entire industry. So, it could be the apple industry or the cut flower industry for example, and it needs to be something that is measurable. So, they need to provide very specific targets of what they are going to do, and then throughout the project they will need to measure their success.

Pre-proposals are due to the WSDA by February 25. The WSDA will review the pre-proposals and invite full proposals in early April, then select and submit winning proposals to the USDA by mid-July. For application information and forms go to www.agr.wa.gov/grants.

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