Ag department plans to award $1.8 million to 17 specialty crop projects

By Sean Ellis

Idaho Farm Bureau Federation

POCATELLO – The Idaho State Department of Agriculture plans to award $1.8 million to 17 projects designed to benefit the state’s specialty crop industry.

The money will be used for marketing, promotion and research activities for Idaho’s potato, apple, wine, onion, cherry, nursery, dry bean, pea and tree nut industries.

The money is available through ISDA’s specialty crop block grant program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Idaho’s 2018 funding plan must still be approved by USDA and final approval is expected by September.

The Idaho agriculture department program is designed solely to benefit specialty crops, which include vegetables, fruits, tree nuts, dried fruits, nursery and horticulture crops.

ISDA received 20 applications this year seeking a total of almost $2.4 million in funding.

In 2017, the ag department received 26 applications seeking specialty crop grant program funding and ISDA awarded 13 of the projects a total of $1.5 million.

In 2016, ISDA received 18 applications and awarded a total of $1.9 million to 15 projects.

ISDA has awarded 120 projects a total of $11 million since the program began in 2009.

This year’s round of funding includes $247,000 for the Idaho Wine Commission to improve consumers’ perception of wine produced in the Gem State by conducting a marketing communications campaign targeting Idahoans and the national wine media.

The wine commission is also slated to receive a $52,000 grant to help fund research and to conduct an economic impact study.

Boise State University will receive $97,000 to create a statewide wine grape vineyard weather and soil monitoring network and digital atlas. The data will be stored and available to the public.

The Idaho Potato Commission will receive $141,000 to develop and deploy advanced detection methods for bacterial ring rot in potatoes. Bacterial ring rot is the most devastating bacterial disease of potatoes and can cause yield losses of more than 50 percent.

The potato commission is also set to receive $124,000 to help fund a research project by University of Idaho scientists that seeks to find a way to control nematodes in potato production.

University of Idaho will receive a $114,000 grant from ISDA to study ways to control the spread of potato virus Y in seed, fresh and process potatoes.

The Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee will be awarded $122,000 to help fund a research project that seeks to use state-of-the-art sensing tools to detect onion bulb rot in storage.

IEOOC will also receive a $72,000 grant for a project designed to increase exports by building and enhancing international markets.

ISDA will award the U.S. Dry Pea and Lentil Council, which is based in North Idaho, $149,00 for a research project that seeks to better understand seed-borne mosaic virus in peas and develop antibodies or molecular-based diagnostic assays.  

University of Idaho’s pomology program is slated to get a $136,000 grant for a project that is looking at the possibility of establishing almonds and walnuts as commercial crops in Idaho.

The Idaho Bean Commission will use a $72,000 grant for a UI project that will study soil-borne diseases of dry beans and develop rapid diagnostic tools and disease management practices.

Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa was awarded a $65,000 grant for a project that will seek to improve early season fruit yield estimates using artificial intelligence techniques.

The Idaho Apple Commission will receive $54,000 to help build awareness of Idaho apples and increase demand and sales thorough retail promotions and the use of local media.

The Idaho Cherry Commission will use a $41,000 grant to create awareness of and increase sales of Idaho cherries through in-store promotions and social media.

ISDA will award the Idaho Nursery and Landscape Association an $87,000 grant to domesticate, propagate and commercialize a new generation of native plant products for the Idaho nursery industry.

INLA will also receive $71,000 for a project that will look at four bacterial amendments in an effort to develop an eco-friendly method to improve the growth of greenhouse and nursery crops.

Idaho Preferred, an ISDA program, will receive $188,000 to market Idaho specialty crops through digital advertising, social media, public relations and retail promotions.