Specialty Crops Get Some Love From Colo. Dept. Of Agriculture

BROOMFIELD, CO – Just in time for harvest season, the Colorado Department of Agriculture announced the awardees in the 2018 Specialty Crops Program. The $768,000 in grants are financed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, meant to help farmers stay competitive while producing specialty crops. The grants are administered by the Broomfield-based Colorado Dept. of Agriculture.

The program awarded grants to ag producers of everything from peaches to potatoes to sod, including a couple of hometown Broomfield concerns.

“The diversity of projects presented each year for this program is amazing,” said Glenda Mostek, grants specialist, in a press release. “Colorado agriculturalists have vision and imagination and are using these funds to transform their industries and communities.”

The ag department itself received three grants:

• $99,730 for development of a Colorado Pavilion at the Produce Marketing Association Fresh Summit Expo in 2019.
• $57,000 for a television advertising campaign in the Denver metro market during the summer of 2019 aimed at encouraging consumers to buy Colorado grown fruits and vegetables.
• $30,000 for an inbound trade mission of Caribbean buyers interested in purchasing Colorado fruits and vegetables.

The Broomfield-based Colorado Wine Industry Development Board was granted $73,860 to establish a Colorado State University Extension "viticulture specialist" position to expand the outreach and informational resources available to Colorado’s wine grape growers.

Other winners of grants for fiscal year 2018 were:

• Rocky Mountain Sod Growers, Mead, CO, $25,000 to educate the public concerning the benefits of sod to the environment and how to conserve water.
• LiveWell Colorado, Denver, CO, $59,930 to promote specialty crops to low-income communities throughout Colorado through the Double Up Food Bucks program.
• Pickens Technical College – Aurora Public Schools, Aurora, CO, $40,000 to transform a greenhouse with state-of-the-art hydroponic technology to educate Pickens students on specialty crop production as well as produce specialty crops to be sold to the Aurora Public Schools Nutrition Services Department.
• Slow Food Denver, Denver, CO, $23,635 to increase the awareness and consumption of Colorado specialty crops by supporting school farm stands, in partnership with Denver Urban Gardens.
• Colorado Potato Administrative Committee, Monte Vista, CO, $69,340 for best management practices for Colorado potato growers resulting in improved soil health.

Colorado State University in Fort Collins received a slew of grants to study crop feasibility and attack pests. The grants were:

• $52,640 to evaluate the feasibility of growing cool-season (dry pea and lentil) and warm-season (chickpea, faba bean, and black-eyed) grain legumes across the state.
• $36,786 to develop integrated pest management (IPM) strategies for Cytospora canker on peaches in Colorado.
• $53,348 to improve propagation and production techniques of numerous difficult-to-produce herbaceous perennials, in partnership with Plant Select.
• $14,163 to increase the success of propagation of herbaceous perennials that are especially adaptable to the Rocky Mountain Region, in partnership with Plant Select.
• $40,000 to address the soil-borne potato pathogen which causes powdery scab disease.
• $68,509 to oversee and conduct well-focused research combined with technical support and outreach to provide Colorado specialty crop producers with science-based information to stimulate innovation, competitiveness, and success.
• $24,995 to improve the competitiveness of specialty crop producers in Colorado through "best management practices for sustainable and sensible weed control."

To learn more about the variety of specialty crops grown in Colorado, (including recipes) visit the Colorado Department of Agriculture Website's Colorado Proud pages.

Stay up-to-date on Broomfield news with Patch! There are many ways for you to connect and stay in touch: Newsletters and Email Alerts|Facebook