LITTLE ROCK — For prodLITTLE ROCK, AR – The Arkansas Department of Agriculture is now accepting applications for the 2024 Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP). These grants are funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to enhance the competitiveness of the Arkansas specialty crop industry. Specialty crops are defined by USDA as fruits, vegetables, horticulture, floriculture, and tree nuts.
The Arkansas Department of Agriculture uses a two-phase application process for administering the grant funds. Project concept proposals outlining the project’s goals, tasks, and budget requirements must be submitted by March 1, 2024.
After all concept proposals are reviewed by an advisory committee, selected projects will be invited to submit detailed project proposals.
Applicants are encouraged to develop projects pertaining to the following issues affecting the specialty crop industry:
Increasing child and adult nutrition knowledge and consumption of specialty crops;
Research projects focused on helping specialty crop growers by improving efficiency and reducing costs of distribution systems, improving pest and disease management, and/or development of new and improved seed varieties and specialty crops;
Investments in specialty crop research, including research to focus on conservation and environmental outcomes;
Enhancing specialty crop food safety, and/or improving the capacity of all entities in the specialty crop distribution chain to comply with the requirements of the Food Safety Modernization Act; and
Sustainability of specialty crops.
The 2024 SCBGP application can be found at cognitoforms.com/ArkansasAgriculture1 /SpecialtyCropBlockGrant2024ProjectConceptProposal.
Information about the 2024 SCBGP is available in the Request for Applications (RFA) at agriculture.arkansas.gov/ wp-content/uploads/ADA-SCBG-RFA-2024.pdf. For additional information, contact Amy Lyman at amy.lyman@agriculture.arkansas.gov. uce growers, a critical element to success is understanding and mitigating the risk of microbial contamination on their farm. To help Arkansas producers navigate this, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture will host its first produce safety grower training of the year via Zoom on Feb. 28-29.
The training will cover soil amendments, wild-life, domesticated animals and land use, agricultural water and more. Participants can register at uada.formstack.com/psa_remote_2024.
Registration is $25 for Arkansas residents and $100 for out-of-state participants. The training will take place Feb. 28-29 from 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. each day. Participants must attend both days of the training and will need internet access, Zoom video conferencing software and a web camera and microphone. Registration closes Feb. 21.
Rip Weaver, extension program technician for food systems and food safety for the Division of Agriculture, said the Arkansas Produce Safety Team is looking forward to the first training of 2024.
“Our team is happy to offer another remote produce safety grower training via Zoom for Arkansas produce growers and others,” Weaver said. “We will be providing information to help them understand how microbial contamination can create risk on their
