Grants Available to Benefit Colorado's Speciality Crops

The Colorado Department of Agriculture is currently seeking proposals for the Specialty Crops Block Grant Program. Specialty crops are defined as fruits and vegetables, dried fruits, and nursery crops including floriculture and sod.
Colorado Department Agriculture Marketing Specialist Glenda Mostek shares more details about how these grants can be used.
Mostek: “Associations, researchers can use these grants for a variety of purposes: to study how to market their products, to simply promote the products, to research varieties, to work on branding. There are a lot of different opportunities out there.”
Mostek continues with how to apply for these grants.
Mostek: “Interested folks can go to Colorado Department of Ag’s website. Look under the Markets Division’s funding tab — there is information about the program there. Applications are available now and all the information they need to apply is on the website. The deadline for applications this year is April 15th and we will let successful applicants know that they will be included in our state package in about June.
In recent years, funds have been awarded to dozens of organizations to conduct research and implement consumer promotions.
CDA anticipates that approximately $550,000 will be available for this year’s grant program, with approved projects starting early in 2017.