NC Specialty Crop Block Grant Program

The NC Specialty Crop Block Grant Program aims to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops such as fruits, vegetables, and nursery crops. Administered by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, the program offers funding to support projects that improve food safety, research, and distribution efficiency. Eligible applicants include nonprofit organizations and government agencies. This initiative promotes sustainable practices and increases nutrition knowledge related to specialty crops, benefiting both producers and consumers.

The purpose of the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP) is to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops. Specialty crops are defined as “fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops (including floriculture).”
The NCDA&CS administers annual grant funding received from the USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Program.
The Specialty Crop Block Grant Program aims to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops in the marketplace. Through a competitive process the department accepts grant requests from nonprofit organizations, commodity associations, state and local government agencies, colleges and universities.
Project Types
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) administers the SCBGP. USDA encourages projects pertaining to the following issues affecting the specialty crop industry:

• enhancing food safety;

improving the capacity of all entities in the specialty crop distribution chain to comply with the requirements of the Food Safety Modernization Act, for example, by developing “Good Agricultural Practices,” “Good Handling Practices,” “Good Manufacturing Practices,” and in cost-share arrangements for funding audits of such systems for small farmers, packers and processors;investing in specialty crop research, including research to focus on conservation and environmental outcomes;developing new and improved seed varieties and specialty crops;
pest and disease control;
Increasing child and adult nutrition knowledge and consumption of specialty crops;
Improving efficiency and reducing costs of distribution systems; and