{"id":25167,"date":"2021-02-18T11:37:08","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T16:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=25167"},"modified":"2021-02-18T11:37:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T16:37:00","slug":"department-seeks-proposals-for-specialty-crop-block-grant-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2021\/02\/18\/department-seeks-proposals-for-specialty-crop-block-grant-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Department Seeks Proposals for Specialty Crop Block Grant Program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3><strong><i>Grant Applications Due by April 7<\/i><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><b>ANNAPOLIS, MD <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2013 The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) is now accepting proposals for the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP), a reimbursement grant program aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of Maryland\u2019s specialty crops. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">MDA <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">anticipates that approximately $350,000 will be available in SCBGP funds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The department is seeking applications from eligible non-profit organizations, government entities, for-profit companies, and other organizations for projects that aim to promote or enhance the production of and access to Maryland specialty crops. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ams.usda.gov\/services\/grants\/scbgp\/specialty-crop\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Specialty crops<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> are defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as fruits, vegetables, culinary herbs and spices, honey, hops, grapes, maple syrup, Christmas trees, and nursery crops.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Competitive grants will be awarded for projects with a minimum of $15,000. In the past, Maryland SCBGP grants have ranged from $15,000<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2013<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">$140,000. SCBGP funds will be awarded for projects lasting up to two years in duration and that conclude by Nov. 30, 2023.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Projects that focus on food safety, market enhancement, and research will be given priority. Proposals will be evaluated based on their potential for the greatest impact on Maryland specialty crop producers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Applicants must be a Maryland resident or their business or educational affiliation must be in Maryland. New this year, proposals can be completed online through <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/onestop.md.gov\/forms\/specialty-crop-block-grant-maryland-5fc51b4e84843f01054e12ba\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maryland OneStop<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><b>The deadline to apply is Wednesday, April 7, 2021, at 11:59 p.m.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> All applications submitted by the deadline will be reviewed by the SCBGP program manager and SCBGP Review Committee.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">MDA administers Maryland\u2019s SCBGP funding. Funding is made available by the U.S. Farm Bill through the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For questions about Maryland\u2019s SCBGP and the application process, please contact Karen Fedor at <\/span><a href=\"mailto:karen.fedor@maryland.gov\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">karen.fedor@maryland.gov<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">410-841-5773. More information about Maryland\u2019s SCBGP can be found on the department\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mda.maryland.gov\/maryland_products\/Pages\/Specialty-Crop-Block-Grant-Program.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">website<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"># # #<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Follow Maryland Department of Agriculture on Twitter <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/mdagdept\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">@MdAgDept<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Grant Applications Due by April 7 ANNAPOLIS, MD \u2013 The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) is now accepting proposals for the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP), a reimbursement grant program aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of Maryland\u2019s specialty crops. MDA anticipates that approximately $350,000 will be available in SCBGP funds.\u00a0 The department is seeking<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2021\/02\/18\/department-seeks-proposals-for-specialty-crop-block-grant-program\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25167"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25169,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25167\/revisions\/25169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}