For Immediate Release

State Ag Department Makes Grant Money Available for Specialty Crops

(Nashville, Jan. 7) The Tennessee Department of Agriculture will sponsor a grant program aimed at giving the state's specialty crop industry a boost, announced state Agriculture Commissioner Dan Wheeler. The state department has recently received a one-time appropriation of funds totaling $900,000 from the United States Department of Agriculture.

"These funds are specifically for the expansion or enhancement of the state's specialty crops industry," said Wheeler.

TDA is making $400,000 available for direct grants to eligible Tennessee specialty crop producers through the Farm Income Improvement Foundation (FIIF). The FIIF is a non-profit organization, affiliated with the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation, which exists for the specific purpose of administering grants to farmers.

Federal law defines specialty crops as "any agriculture crop, except wheat, feed grains, oilseeds, cotton, rice, peanuts and tobacco." Livestock and poultry products are not considered eligible crops for the upcoming grants. Eligible crop categories would include fruits and vegetables, horticulture, forage and aquaculture.

Commissioner Wheeler said the FIIF program seemed to be the best and most efficient way to get funds quickly to the producers across the state who could make the best use of the grants.

"We want to get funds like these out to the people we serve," said Wheeler. "Just as we return funds collected from sales of the "Ag Tag" license plate as grants to the Ag community, we want to see these federal monies in the hands of Tennessee farmers. The Farm Income Improvement Foundation is already in place and able to handle the grant process."

"We would like potential projects to have a long-term impact," said Joe Pearson, Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation Director of Commodity Activities. "The intent of this grant program is to help farmers in expand or establish farm infrastructure for specialty crop production and marketing."

Grants may be used for but not exclusive to: market promotion, marketing materials, increasing consumption of specialty crops, identifying new marketing opportunities, purchasing pieces of specialized equipment, education, food safety, research, farmers markets or addressing pest and disease problems. Pearson said the grant process would be "user-friendly."

Grants are available in amounts up to $10,000 and require that 50 percent of the total project costs be paid by the applicant. Applications will be accepted from individual farmers, groups of individual farmers, cooperatives and agricultural businesses currently producing, expanding or establishing specialty crop operations. The deadline to submit applications is March 1, 2002.

For more information or to obtain a grant application contact the Commodity Activities Department at (931) 388-7872 or your local county Farm Bureau office.