Kentucky Department of Agriculture receives funds for USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Program
USDA grant is part of a $86.6 million nationwide investment
FRANKFORT, Ky. (Oct. 16, 2026) – The Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) has been awarded $413,908.66 for the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP) from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Through the grant, KDA funds projects that enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops in the state and support specialty crop growers through research, education, and marketing.
“Specialty crops make up a significant part of Kentucky’s agricultural economy and through these grants the Kentucky Department of Agriculture is pleased to be able to provide assistance to our producers to grow that production,” Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell. “The specialty crop program is intended to help make Kentucky specialty crops more competitive in both domestic and foreign markets. These funds will allow new and unique opportunities for Kentucky farm families.”
Through the SCBGP, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture is funding eight projects in 2026.
The three-year projects funded include:
• EBB Farms Lone Hill, LLC – $20,000. EBB Farms Lone Hill LLC, in partnership with DTM Collective LLC dba United Chestnuts and the University of Kentucky Fruit and Nut Extension team, will improve the competitiveness of Kentucky chestnut production by developing freely available, Kentucky-specific pest and disease management resources for growers and prospective producers statewide.
• University of Kentucky - $59,673. The University of Kentucky (UK) Research Foundation will conduct a project to build from existing high-density apple, peach, and pear plantings to collect harvest, yield, fruit quality, labor, crop-protection, canopy-management, and orchard-system data under Kentucky conditions. The results from UK’s Modern Training Systems Orchard will be translated into field days, orchard walks, focused extension publications, agent-training materials, and an English- and Spanish-language video training series.
• University of Kentucky - $59,716. The University of Kentucky Horticulture and Agriculture Economics team will evaluate several watermelon cultivars for yield, nutrition, flavor, and consumer preference. Information will be disseminated to commercial growers and county agents through presentations at the statewide fruit and vegetable conference, a field day, and a fact sheet.
• University of Kentucky - $62,691. The University of Kentucky Fruit Extension will evaluate advanced USDA blueberry selections on the modern raised bed production system to update the current available resources/research. This project will also host in-person field days/demonstrations. Both aim to make blueberry production more accessible and economically viable for current or aspiring blueberry growers who are currently discouraged by weed and disease pressure, soil pH, and other weather-related stressors in Kentucky.
• University of Kentucky - $45,609. The University of Kentucky will support sustainable strawberry production in Kentucky by identifying strawberry cultivars, heirlooms, and breeding lines with improved resistance or tolerance to Neopestalotiopsis (“Neopest”) disease and by developing an AI-assisted, image-based disease-screening workflow for future cultivar evaluation and breeding. The project will also use screening results to select contrasting parents, make greenhouse crosses, and establish initial progeny populations for future genetic mapping and breeding.
• Kentucky Department of Agriculture - $49,708. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) will safeguard the state’s honey yields and specialty crop pollination networks by developing a modernized, proactive apiary emergency response system. To reduce devastating colony losses from rapid-onset threats, such as acute transportation accidents, pesticide exposures, severe weather, and contagious disease outbreaks, KDA will deploy advanced ArcGIS software and rapid-diagnostic field equipment to create a real-time, spatially accurate apiary database.
• University of Kentucky - $49,620. The University of Kentucky will lead a health-focused peer-promotion initiative to increase community supported agriculture (CSA) subscription rates for fresh, seasonal vegetables while generating replicable marketing resources for CSA farmers and employer wellness programs statewide. The proposed program builds on this previous effort by creating a promotion model with an explicit health and nutrition focus aligned implementation.
• 525 Kitchen – $33,779. 525 Kitchen, Inc. will strengthen Kentucky specialty crop competitiveness by developing and demonstrating a compact hydroponic microgreens production model designed for beginning farmers, urban growers, and small-scale producers. The project will establish a 15 x 20 controlled environment hoop structure to evaluate production efficiency, food safety practices, and practical adoption strategies for year-round specialty crop production.
The funding for the SCBGP grants is authorized by the 2018 Farm Bill. Since 2006, USDA has invested more than $1 billion through the SCBGP to fund more than 13,000 projects that have increased the long-term successes of producers and enhanced marketing opportunities for U.S. specialty crops products.
For more information on the grants, visit the USDA's website.
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
