Specialty Crop Block Grant Program Accepting Applications

Press Release BATON ROUGE, La. -- The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF) is now accepting applications for the 2015 Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP), Commissioner Mike Strain, D.V.M., announced today.

Applications must be received no later than close of business (4:30 p.m.) May 11, 2015.

The LDAF will administer the grant program funded through the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA-AMS). Although, the USDA has not officially released SCBGP funding amounts, the LDAF anticipates about $300,000 will be available to fund Louisiana projects.

The grants designated for the state are to be used for projects that solely enhance the competitiveness of Louisiana specialty crops like fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, Christmas trees, turf grass/sod, nursery and greenhouse crops.

Some groups eligible for the grants include non-profit organizations and corporations, commodity associations, state and local government entities, colleges and universities. Applicants must reside in or their business or educational affiliation must be in Louisiana. One requirement of applicants is that each applicant must obtain a Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number and include that number on their application.

Grant funds will not be awarded for projects that directly benefit a particular commercial product or provide a profit to a single organization, institution or individual. Projects should focus on issues to help improve specialty crop industries as a whole such as: distribution, production, research, market development, food safety, promotion and education.

LDAF will accept grant applications with a yearly budget value of up to $100,000. Grants can be awarded for projects lasting up to two years and 11 months. Once the deadline has passed, all applications submitted to the LDAF will be carefully evaluated to determine if the projects are qualified based on the criteria listed in the guidelines.

All submitted project applications deemed qualified will be reviewed and scored by a panel consisting of industry stakeholders, and the panel will make funding recommendations to LDAF. All LDAF approved projects will be incorporated into one state grant request, which will be submitted to the USDA.

LDAF has prepared a Request for Applications (RFA) document detailing application instructions, scoring criteria, federal forms, project format examples and other helpful information from the USDA. The document may be found at http://www.LDAF.la.gov. Click on the 2015 Specialty Crop alert.

A complete list of eligible specialty crops may be found at http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/scbgpdefinitions.

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Specialty Crop Block Grant Program Accepting Applications