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USDA/APHIS grants more than $70 million to protect crops and natural resources
Washington, DC, USa
Januar 14, 2025 — Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is announcing an investment of more than $70 million in 357 projects in Fiscal Year 2025 through the 2008 Farm Bill’s Plant Protection Act’s Section 7721 program. The work will strengthen the country’s defenses against plant pests and diseases, safeguard the U.S. nursery system, and enhance pest detection and mitigation efforts. Universities, states, Tribal organizations, federal agencies, and others will manage these projects in 49 states, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
“This funding provides our partners throughout the country the tools they need to help protect U.S. agriculture, our natural resources, and food security,” said Jenny Lester Moffitt, Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs. “These projects will help in the fight against invasive plant pests and diseases, protecting growers and creating more export opportunities for American products.”
Out of the 357 projects funded this year, 339 are managed by the Plant Pest and Disease Management and Disaster Prevention Program (PPDMDPP) and 18 are supported through the National Clean Plant Network (NCPN). PPDMDPP projects are organized around specific goal areas that represent critical needs and opportunities to strengthen against, prevent, detect, and mitigate invasive pests and diseases. Whereas the NCPN helps maintain the infrastructure needed for pathogen, disease, and pest-free-certified planting materials, benefiting U.S. specialty crop producers.
Some of the projects selected for funding this year include:
- $5,795,692 to support detector dog team training and maintenance for domestic pest detection in California, Florida, and nationally.
- $2,496,437 to support Tribal and minority organization’s plant protection research, survey, outreach, and invasive pest mitigation efforts in nine states and Guam.
- $1,569,773 to support national honey bee surveys in 44 states and territories.
- $1,138,313 to survey and protect American boxwoods from the invasive box tree moth.
- $1,680,121 to support stone fruit and orchard pest detection surveys in 10 states, including California, Colorado, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington.
- $904,160 for various survey, detection tools, control methods development for forest pests, and outreach to protect forests from harmful pests in Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
- $647,049 in 12 states, including Alabama, California, Louisiana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, and nationally for survey, research, mitigation, and outreach for sudden oak death (Phytophthora ramorum) and related species.
- $1,459,606 to support surveys and enhance identification technologies for invasive defoliating moths in 16 states, including Alaska, California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina, and Washington.
- $1,600,921 for certified, disease-free citrus planting materials to protect American nurseries and growers from economic losses caused by citrus plant diseases.
USDA plans to allocate approximately $10 million for rapid responses to invasive pest emergencies, addressing pests with high economic consequences. In the past, USDA has used these funds to respond quickly to threats like the box tree moth, spotted lanternfly, Asian longhorned beetle, and invasive fruit flies.
Since 2009, USDA has supported more than 5,800 projects and provided nearly $940 million in PPA 7721 funding. These projects help USDA, and its partners quickly detect and respond to invasive plant pests and diseases.
For more details, view the fiscal year 2025 Plant Protection Act’s Section 7721 spending plans online: www.aphis.usda.gov/ppa-projects.
More news from: USDA - APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service)
Website: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ Published: January 15, 2025 |
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