Maryland Announces Grant Awardees for Specialty Crops; Selected Projects include Regional Food Hub, Food Safety and Wineries

ANNAPOLIS, MD – The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) today announced the recipients of $447,298 in federal grants that will fund projects designed to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops in Maryland. Specialty crops are defined as fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops. Funding for the grants came through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, which was authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill.

“We are pleased to announce awardees of the Maryland Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. The 2008 Farm Bill provided significant grant funding dedicated to specialty crops to become available,” said Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance. “These funds are a great opportunity to help farmers and value-added producers advance and promote local specialty crops in the marketplace, spark new markets, job creation and help keep Maryland smart, green and growing.”

MDA created a competitive grant process with a review committee to award these federal funds. The following is a snapshot of the funded projects:

Maryland Grape Growers Association ($24,100) – Increase grape grower knowledge and adoption of sustainable viticulture practices through the development of a guide to help growers conduct an assessment of their vineyard practices and a sustainability action plan based on the outcome of the assessment;

Maryland Wineries Association ($18,700) – Increase consumer, restaurant, and retailer acceptance and familiarity of Maryland wine by developing, promoting, and managing a wine demonstration event to members of the food and wine trade featuring Maryland wine from Maryland-grown grapes;

Maryland Department of Agriculture ($273,421)

• Continue to strengthen consumer awareness of local specialty crops and connect specialty crop farmers with markets through seasonal promotions of Maryland specialty crops via mass media, www.marylandsbest.net, direct partnerships with Maryland specialty crop associations, and other strategic promotional avenues;
• Continue to mitigate specialty crop food safety risks by reducing barriers to implementing Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) programs though specialty crop producer technical assistance, training programs, one-on-one assistance on developing GAP programs, and U.S. Department of Agriculture GAP and USDA Harmonized GAP audit certification cost share assistance;
• Assist producers in implementing effective good handling practices (GHP) by conducting training; offering cost share for U.S. Department of Agriculture verification audits; conducting environmental assessments to evaluate the effectiveness of implemented practices; developing improved guidelines for practices based on environmental assessment results; and conducting inspections to verify compliance with Maryland Department of Agriculture GHP for packing sheds;
• Identify plant species likely to become invasive by conducting a Weed Risk Assessment and summarizing information about the species in an easy to interpret, user friendly document format to provide a scientifically determined basis for establishing regulated species lists and disseminating to appropriate specialty crop stakeholders;

Engaged Community Offshoots (ECO) City Farms ($44,978) – Demonstrate how small urban and rural farms can intensively produce microgreens and shoots year-around for restaurants by developing and documenting a microgreen production system that can be replicated by other farmers.

Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission ($22,593) – Promote local specialty crop farmer sustainability and provide nutritious food to food insecure networks by researching and planning a regional food hub, with a focus on table crop producers in Southern Maryland.

University of Maryland ($16,028) – Increase the grade and marketability of processing sweet corn by modifying current insect control practices to manage stink bugs in the most cost-effective and environmentally-acceptable way and disseminate important information through a management guide and scientific papers.

USDA recently announced a total of $52 million in specialty crops grants which includes 54 block grants to U.S. states and territories that will support 694 initiatives across the country to strengthen markets and expand economic opportunities for local and regional producers. For more information.

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