The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Oct. 13 it is awarding $86.6 million in grant funding to support the specialty crop industry through the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program.
The funding includes citrus-specific projects in Arizona, California, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.
ARIZONA
University of Arizona Yuma Agricultural Center has funding of $94,506 to deploy two real-time flux tower systems in citrus and date palm orchards to develop locally validated seasonal water-use benchmarks. The project will provide improved crop water-use information to support data-driven irrigation decision-making, help reduce over- and under-irrigation, and improve seasonal water-use planning in Yuma County.
CALIFORNIA
The University of California, Riverside (UCR) has funding of $422,199 to introduce tolerance to HLB into citrus cultivars widely grown in California, including Washington navel orange, Tango mandarin and Lisbon lemon to reduce crop loss.
Funding of $467,128 will allow UCR to develop an artificial intelligence-based surveillance platform to monitor and detect unregulated online sales of citrus plant material, preventing a key pathway for pest and disease spread.
The UCR Department of Entomology is funded $387,972 to lead a project that supports enhancing the speed and reliability of detection methods for invasive sap-sucking pests in citrus orchards. The project will optimize and scale three integrated pest management tools: hydrogel ant baits, insectary plantings and automated infrared ant sensors.
UCR funding of $498,538 will be used to conduct a project that aims to enable reductions in fertilizer and water use by combining biochar and model-designed light and nutrient amendments to accelerate nursery tree production. The project will increase production efficiency, profitability and sustainability for 250 California citrus nurseries.
Funding of $290,811 at UCR will be used to conduct a project evaluating the sterile insect technique as a management tool to contain the HLB-spreading Asian citrus psyllid.
GEORGIA
Valdosta State University is funded $96,865 to enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of citrus production in Georgia by improving citrus canker preparedness through voluntary survey and identification of citrus canker-associated Xanthomonas. Outcomes will provide science-based information to improve disease awareness, support citrus variety selection and strengthen citrus canker preparedness.
LOUISIANA
The Louisiana State University Agricultural Center received $17,910 to investigate the use of individual protective covers (IPCs) as an HLB management tool. IPCs will be deployed to exclude the HLB-spreading Asian citrus psyllid, allowing measurement of HLB infection rates at one and two years post-planting. The effectiveness of IPCs in hurricane and freeze events will also be measured.
TEXAS
Texas Citrus Pest and Disease Management Corporation received $75,440 to implement an early-education citrus outreach project to increase awareness of the Texas citrus industry, citrus pests and diseases, quarantine compliance and proper backyard citrus tree care. The project will develop an age-appropriate educational video, create grade-specific classroom activities, distribute educational materials, conduct outreach to schools and educators and implement interactive citrus education events for elementary students.
See the full list of funded projects here.
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