The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) invites has called for pre-applications to solve critical specialty crop issues, priorities, or problems through integrated research and extension activities.

Yesterday NIFA announced it would be distributing $48 million in FY2018 through the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI), authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill.

This builds on US$400 million delivered through SCRI to date.

"To be competitive in a global market, U.S. specialty crop producers need to use sophisticated technologies and prudent practices,” NIFA Director Sonny Ramaswamy said in a release.

"These NIFA investments support large-scale systems projects that we expect will result in knowledge, which can promote efficient and effective production, processing, and distribution practices, along with long-term solutions to specialty crop industry challenges."

The SCRI program will give priority to projects that are multistate, multi-institutional, or trans-disciplinary and include clearly defined mechanisms to communicate results to producers and the public.

Five focus areas for SCRI projects include research on breeding, pest and disease management, production efficiency, innovations and technology, and food safety.

Previously funded work includes a Clemson University project to encourage growers to use online resources for consumption of recycled water; the resources include online decision tools, grower surveys to understand barriers, economic management protocols, and models for water disinfection and distribution.

Cornell University coordinated the Northern Grapes Project, a consortium of research and extension specialists from 14 states from New England to the Upper Midwest. The project resulted in a 17% increase in production of cold hardy grapes in the region.

Further analysis showed that employment in vineyards producing cold hardy grapes increased 32% from 5,900 to 7,800 jobs, employment in wineries increased from 5,000 to 8,400 jobs (68%), and employment in tasting rooms increased from 1,500 to 2,526 jobs (49%).

In the wineries, sales of cold-hardy wines increased by 11% and the economic contribution of the wineries increased from $215 million to $255 million (19%).

The application deadline is Dec. 8, 2017. See the request for applications for details.

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