Big Dollars for Southern Crop Protection
Across the Southeast, farmers, nursery operators, foresters, and citrus growers are getting a boost from new USDA funding aimed at helping agriculture respond to costly pests and plant diseases already impacting producers while improving detection for new threats.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced more than 90 million dollars through its Plant Protection Act program to support 441 projects nationwide, many with direct ties to southeastern agriculture.
That includes more than 5.6 million dollars for detector dog teams helping identify invasive pests in places like Florida, nearly 927 thousand dollars for forest pest surveys and outreach in states including Georgia, Arkansas, and Tennessee, and more than 2 million dollars to provide certified disease-free citrus planting materials designed to help protect growers from devastating citrus diseases.
USDA is also investing more than 1.6 million dollars to improve detection technology for invasive moth species in states including North Carolina and Kentucky, while national honey bee surveys across 47 states and territories will receive more than 1.6 million dollars.
