If you have a project in mind that can enhance specialty crops in Virginia you can apply for one of 16 grants to be awarded by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services this year.
Totaling $111,000, six of the grants can have a value of up to $10,000 and ten of the grants can have a value up to $5,000. VDACS' deadline for receiving applications is 5 p.m. on March 9, 2007.
Specialty crops to be considered are vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, and nursery crops (including floriculture).
Note that projects involving certain crops will not be eligible for consideration. Ineligible crops include cotton, feed crops (corn, hay, oats, barley, etc.), flax seed, food grains (rye or wheat), livestock and dairy products, eggs, oil crops (soybeans, sunflower seeds, canola, etc.), peanuts, range grasses, sod, tobacco and turf.
Applications will be reviewed at VDACS and those approved will them be put into one VDACS grant which will then be submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
For more information, contact Melissa Ball at melissa.ball@vdacs.virginia.gov or at 102 Governor Street, #321, Richmond, VA 23219, or call 804.786.3530.