San Juan, Puerto Rico—Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi announced today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has begun accepting applications for competitive grants for research and education projects designed to fight the citrus greening disease.

Eligible applicants are federal agencies, national laboratories, colleges and universities, research institutions and organizations, private organizations or corporations, state or territory agricultural experiment stations, cooperative extension services, individuals, or groups consisting of two or more of these entities.  This is a nationwide competition for $23 million in federal funds, and this funding was authorized by Congress through the 2014 Farm Bill.

“Last year, in the first round of funding, USDA awarded grants for seven proposals.  For example, federal funds were awarded to universities in Florida and California to support scientific research to develop a chemical agent that can be applied to infected citrus trees to kill the disease, and for development of new approaches and tools to manage the spread of citrus greening where it exists,” said Pierluisi.

“I encourage our cooperative extension service of the University of Puerto Rico, our citrus farmers associations, one or more of our eight agricultural experiment stations located throughout the island, and Puerto Rico businesses that rely on citrus production to consider working together to submit a joint proposal for consideration in this grant round.  Our extension service, which is funded in part by the federal government and in part by the territory government, is currently working with producers to promote good management practices that can avoid infestation by the insect—called Asian citrus psyllid—that spreads the disease throughout citrus orchards.  This federal funding opportunity is available to help sustain and strengthen these local education efforts, but a high-quality proposal must be submitted because there is strong competition for this funding,” added the Resident Commissioner.

According to the most recent statistics available, citrus production ranks very high among fruits harvested in Puerto Rico, with over 7,000 acres planted by over 700 producers on 2,800 farms, most of which are located in the mountainous municipalities.  Average annual net production of citrus in Puerto Rico is valued at over $8 million with about 60 million fruits produced.  Citrus greening was first detected in Puerto Rico in 2009, and the disease continues to spread throughout the island reducing yields and threatening new crops.

There is a pre-application submission deadline of June 1, 2015, which requires a stakeholder relevance statement that would detail the economic, environmental, and social significance of the problem meant to be addressed by the project for which the federal funding is sought.  Applications will then be reviewed by USDA review team, and the applicants who are then determined to have submitted the highest quality proposals will be invited to submit more information by August 15, 2015, for a final round of competition.

Detailed application instructions are available here—

http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDAOC/bulletins/fc3420.