Grants for 12 specialty crop producers announced

Twelve Iowa projects have received annual USDA grants to help enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops grown in Jasper County and throughout Iowa.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey announced Oct. 14 that nearly $300,000 has been awarded through the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. The grants will go to 12 entities that produce or educate in the field of specialty crops.

“Specialty crops are a very important part of Iowa agriculture as they allow farmers to diversify and give customers access to locally grown products,” Northey said. “These federal funds will support food safety, research and marketing efforts that will encourage Iowans to choose fruits, vegetables, nuts and flowers that are produced right here in our state.”

Specialty crops that are eligible under this program are fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits and horticulture and nursery crops, including floriculture.

The total block grant is not the same for each state every year. In 2013, for example, the USDA only made about $270,000 available for Iowa specialty crop grants.

Iowa agricultural nonprofit organizations, cooperatives, specialty crop industry associations or organizations and producer groups were eligible to apply for funding. Public comment was invited from specialty crop stakeholders; a review committee helped review, evaluate and make recommendations on which grant proposals should receive funding.

The maximum grant award to sub-grantees within Iowa is $24,000. Administrative and indirect costs were not allowed.

The grant proposal requirements, as with most government grants, require a long, detailed plan for how the grant money will be spent. A budget must be detailed, with certain deviations only allowed with permission from a state department of agriculture.

Task assignments must be made for individuals with specific job titles or roles. Timelines should not start before Oct. 1.

The 12 grant recipients for 2016 are:

• Prairie Moonwort Hops Farm, LLC: $9,100 to determine the viability of hops plants, within the small-plot (less than 10-acres) field common in the Loess Hills region of western Iowa and to prove the marketability of locally grown hops to the emerging craft-beer industry.

• Iowa Department of Public Health (WIC): $24,000 to increase the sales of fruit and vegetables at Iowa farmers markets and the consumption of various specialty crops resulting from an advertising campaign promoting the usage of the farmers market checks distributed to WIC participants.

• Iowa Lakes Community College: $20,000 to educate community youth, adults with disabilities, college students and community patrons on specialty crop gardening, the nutritional benefits of locally-grown food, the physical benefits of gardening and the economic resourcefulness of local produce programs.

• Practical Farmers of Iowa: $24,000 to enhance collaborative on-farm research and farmer to farmer knowledge sharing for successful specialty crops in Iowa.

• Iowa Food Hub (doing business as Allamakee New Beginnings): $10,500 to enhance the Good Agricultural Practices/Good Handling Practices cost share program for Iowa fruit and vegetable producers.

• Iowa Honey Producers Association: $8,581 to establish an online searchable bee law website for general public use.

• Lutheran Services of Iowa: $24,000 to help refugees in Iowa improve their production of specialty crops and increase the availability of their produce to the public and to begin to transition their specialty crop businesses to independent operations.

• Iowa City Parks and Rec: $23,990 to create and teach within edible classrooms in order to promote specialty crops in Iowa City for community involvement at the Robert A. Lee Recreation Center.

• New Hope Community, Inc.: $22,643 to establish and create the Mahaska County Season Extension Demonstration Project for specialty crop production.

• Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship’s Farm-to-School Program: $14,900 to teach students through hands-on lessons about all aspects of gardening and healthy environmental alternatives to composting in a specialty crop environment.

• Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship: $46,693 to conduct the Iowa commercial horticulture food crops survey and economic impact study.

• The Iowa Wine Trail: $24,000 to increase awareness of specialty grape crops in Iowa through a marketing campaign.