Specialty Crop Block Grant Program – US

In Vermont, the Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets (VAAFM) administers these funds to enhance the competitiveness of Vermont and regionally grown specialty crops.

Program Purpose

• Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP) funds enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops by:
  • Leveraging efforts to market and promote specialty crops
  • Assisting producers with research and development relevant to specialty crops
  • Expanding availability and access to specialty crops
  • Addressing local, regional, and national challenges confronting specialty crop producers
• USDA AMS supports projects that address the needs of U.S. specialty crop growers and strengthen local and regional food systems.

Funding Priorities

• Research, development, and dissemination of innovative production practices to enhance farm viability, natural resource conservation, and climate change mitigation and adaptation
• Pest and disease management
• Enhancing food safety and improving the capacity of specialty crop businesses to comply with Food Safety Modernization Act or food safety audit program requirements
• Value chain enhancement—including strengthening relationships between producers, aggregators, processors, distributors, retail businesses, and consumers
• Technical assistance to address efficiency, conservation, climate change, business viability, workforce development, labor issues, succession planning, and challenges facing beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers
• Market access (local, regional, national, or international), marketing, branding, and consumer education
• Producer collaboration—including establishing or strengthening producer associations and cooperatives
• Responding to priority needs relating to COVID-19 impacts

Award Information

• There is no minimum or maximum award; however, they competitively award around $200,000 total each year.
• Over the past 5 years, they competitively awarded individual projects between $4,000 and $58,000. The average award over this period was around $35,000, and 50% of awarded projects received between $20,000 and $45,000.
• They will award grants for projects up to 2 years, 6 months in length.

Eligible Projects

• A university requests funding to research the feasibility of planting, cultivating, and growing a specialty crop in a particular area, the results of which will be shared with many growers throughout the state during the project.
• A single grower requests funds to demonstrate the viability of a new specialty crop production method and partners with Extension to publicize the method to other regional growers.
• A single company requests funds to provide a viable pollination alternative to specialty crop stakeholders in a region that currently does not have one.
• A nonprofit organization requests funds to conduct an advertising campaign that will benefit their specialty crop members.

Eligibility Criteria

• Any entity may apply if the proposed project benefits Vermont’s specialty crop industries and aligns with program requirements, including funding restrictions. Applicants must describe how the project will benefit and produce measurable outcomes for specialty crop industries and/or the public rather than a single specialty crop business, organization, or individual. They will not fund projects that primarily benefit a single business or that business’s product, organization, or individual. Single businesses, organizations, or individuals are encouraged to participate as project partners.
• They encourage individual businesses, organizations, or individuals to collaborate with other industry representatives, such as members of producer associations, to ensure that the project will benefit multiple businesses and address specialty crop industry needs.

For more information, visit Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets (VAAFM).