Project Grant 20256801644309

This $300,000 Project Grant awarded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) CFDA 10.310 program aims to assist beekeepers in the Southern Appalachian region impacted by Hurricane Helene. The grant will fund workshops on queen rearing and best management practices to help beekeepers grow their colonies back to pre-hurricane levels and address any increased disease prevalence due to the environmental stress of flooding. The goal is to facilitate the repopulation of the managed honey bee population in the area to better serve pollination demands by local growers. North Carolina State University, an 1862 Land Grant university, is the prime awardee and will conduct the training and sampling activities.