The Florida Citrus Commission (FCC) on May 17 received a summary of the latest state funding earmarked for scientific research that will be administered by the Florida Department of Citrus (FDOC). FDOC Director of Scientific Research Rosa Walsh provided the summary. She noted that the funding established by the Florida Legislature needs to be approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
State general revenue funding is expected to provide $650,000 of recurring dollars to fund New Varieties Development and Management Corp. (NVDMC). An additional $1 million in non-recurring funds will support additional new varieties research. Walsh said she will be investigating the best use of these funds in the coming weeks and months and share any proposals as soon as possible. She presented a new contract for NVDMC for $650,000 for 2023–24. The FCC voted to approve the contract.
Walsh reported there is $2 million in non-recurring funds for the Citrus Recovery Program. These funds are for increasing the production of trees that show greening tolerance or resistance, to advance technologies that produce tolerant or resistant trees, and for the advancement of greening tolerant or resistance trees using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR). Walsh will also be investigating options for the best use of these funds and present any proposals as soon as possible.
She also presented and received FCC approval of a new contract with the University of South Florida to continue to employ registered dietitian Jennifer Hillis. This contract will be for $311,190 for two fiscal years.
The Florida Legislature allocated a total of about $65 million for the citrus industry in this year’s budget.
Source: FDOC
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