WY Specialty Crop Block Grant Program

The Wyoming Department of Agriculture's Specialty Crop Block Grant Program aims to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops through marketing, research, and addressing industry challenges. Projects may include improving food safety, investing in research, supporting organic farming, and increasing access to specialty crops in underserved areas. This initiative promotes climate resilience and sustainable practices, encouraging innovation in the specialty crop sector to benefit local producers and communities.

The goal of the WDA Specialty Crop Program is to substantially 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; andaddressing local, regional, and national challenges confronting specialty crop producers.
Specialty crops are defined as “fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops including floriculture.” This has been made possible through a grant from the USDA Specialty Crops Block Grant Program to carry out the following projects focusing on education, production, processing consumption, marketing, distribution, and food safety. Through subgrants SCBGP Program assists entities in enhancing the competitiveness of Wyoming specialty crops
Eligible Projects
USDA encourages entities to develop 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;Supporting the growth of organic specialty crops;
Developing new and improved seed varieties and specialty crops;
Pest and disease control;
Increasing child and adult nutrition knowledge and consumption of specialty crops;
Increasing opportunities for new and beginning farmers;
Improving efficiency and reducing costs of distribution systems;
Developing local and regional food systems; and
Improving food access in underserved communities and among veterans
USDA promotes climate-resilient landscapes and rural economic systems, including tools to support agriculture, forests, grazing lands, and rural communities. AMS encourages applicants to consider including goals and activities related to reducing and stabilizing the levels of heat trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere or adapting to the already occurring climate change in their project’s design and implementation.