The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is now accepting proposals for the 2019 Specialty Crop Multi-State Program (SCMP).

The SCMP is a federal grant program offered by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. The purpose of the SCMP is to competitively award funds to projects that solely enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops by funding collaborative, multi-state projects that address regional or national level specialty crop issues, including food safety, plant pests and disease, research, crop-specific projects addressing common issues, and marketing and promotion.

Specialty crops include fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops (including floriculture).

Additional information about the SCMP, including a link to register for an informational webinar, is available on the CDFA SCMP website. All prospective applicants are encouraged to review the 2019 SCMP Request for Applications on the USDA-AMS website.

Grant awards will range from $250,000 to $1 million per project and projects may last for up to three years. Specialty crop producer associations and groups, other state agencies, Tribal government entities, universities, nonprofits, and other stakeholder groups and organizations are eligible to apply.

All SCMP proposals must include at least two partners (referred to as "multi-state partners") with substantive involvement in the project, and the multi-state partners must be located in two different states to qualify. The deadline to submit SCMP proposals to California is 1:59 p.m. PST on September 1, 2019. Proposals must be submitted electronically to [email protected]. 

All questions regarding the SCMP should be emailed to [email protected].

Climate-smart agriculture

The CDFA is also now accepting applications for 2019 Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Technical Assistance Funding.  Funds awarded through this competitive grant process will be distributed to Resource Conservation Districts, the University of California Cooperative Extension, and nonprofit organizations with demonstrated technical expertise in designing and implementing agricultural management practices to support CDFA’s 2019 CSA incentive programs.

Eligible organizations may request up to $120,000 to provide technical assistance to applicants and awardees of the 2019 Alternative Manure Management Program and the 2019 Healthy Soils Program. A description of the technical assistance program and links to the application materials can be found at https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/oefi/technical/index.html. Applications are due Aug. 30, 2019 at 5 p.m. PT. Late applications will not be accepted.

“Our technical assistance partners have proven so valuable to the success of the Climate Smart Agriculture Programs,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross, “I’m pleased we can expand their roles, continue to use their expertise and provide ongoing technical assistance for three years to farmers and ranchers in California”.

Source: California Department of Food and Agriculture, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.