Public Comment Sought on MDA Specialty Crop Block Grant

 The MDA is seeking input on project priorities for our upcoming Specialty Crop Block Grant (SCBG) Request for Proposals. Your suggestions will be used to help guide the competitive review process by ensuring that we provide priority points for the types of projects that are most in need by specialty crop growers in Minnesota. Please email feedback to Michael.Greene1@state.mn.us by September 29 for consideration.

Consider these questions:

• Are there any priorities we are missing?
• Are all these priorities important for Minnesota specialty crops?
• What on-going challenges in the state’s specialty crop industry may be addressed through this grant funding?

Contact me if you have questions. The priorities for your review can be found below. 

Thanks!

Michael Greene

Grant Specialist

Ag Marketing and Development Division

O: 651-201-6144

www.mda.state.mn.us     

Please Provide Feedback on these Proposed Priorities

Applications can receive up to 8 priority points depending on how well their project addresses at least one of the priorities listed below.

• Improving distribution systems, promotion, and marketing of specialty crops.
• Increasing child and adult nutrition knowledge and consumption of specialty crops.
• Researching and developing techniques that focus on pest and disease control and prevention.
• Developing new or improved specialty crop seed or plant varieties.
• Researching and developing techniques to improve sustainable production of specialty crops and environmental outcomes.
• Improving food safety and compliance with food safety standards and requirements across the specialty crop supply chain.

More Information about Specialty Crop Block Grant

USDA SCBG Program Purpose

The SCBGP assists State departments of agriculture to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops by:

(1) leveraging efforts to market and promote specialty crops;

(2) assisting producers with research and development relevant to specialty crops;

(3) expanding availability and access to specialty crops; and

(4) addressing local, regional, and national challenges confronting specialty crop producers.

(5) for such other purposes determined to be appropriate by the Secretary of Agriculture, in consultation with specialty crop stakeholders and relevant State departments of agriculture.

Specialty crops are fruits and vegetables, dried fruit, tree nuts, horticulture, and nursery crops (including floriculture). Additional information on specialty crops, including a table of examples of the most common commodities, is available at: https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/grants/scbgp/specialty-crop.

Background Information

To be eligible to be a Minnesota SCBG project, the specialty crop(s) that is the focus of the research, educational, or marketing/promotion project needs to be grown in Minnesota. Each project is required to demonstrate external support from specialty crop stakeholders, including specialty crop growers, grower-level groups, processors, and distributors. Applications for grant funds should describe how the project potentially affects and produces measurable outcomes for the specialty crop industry and/or the public, who will benefit from the project, and how project results and outcomes will be evaluated. Projects that address problems or opportunities that cross state boundaries are eligible.

Previously funded activities need to address whether or not the projects are likely to become self-sustaining and that specialty crop stakeholders, other than those involved in the project, support the continuation of the project.