Specialty Crop Block Grant Program

The Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service administers the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (CFDA 10.169) to increase fruit, vegetable, and nut consumption and improve the competitiveness of U.S. specialty crop producers, with the most recent grant award issued on September 30, 2013.

This program has entered dormancy. No grant awards have been disbursed since September 2013—more than twelve years ago. The portfolio shows 135 total federal awards spanning 2007 through 2013, with significant activity in 2007–2009 (51, 38, and 45 awards respectively) that collapsed to a single award in 2013. The Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service is the sole funding agency, having obligated $20.8 million in federal dollars across the program's lifetime.

The program is structured predominantly as Block Grants (98 percent of awards, 132 of 135), with three Project Grants representing the remainder. Recent awards demonstrate the block grant character: the Delaware Department of Agriculture received $104,504 in October 2009 for specialty crop activities; the University of the District of Columbia received $100,000 in October 2009; New York State's Department of Agriculture received $164,953 in September 2009; and Hawaii's Department of Agriculture received $117,906 in July 2009. Typical individual award values ranged from $100,000 to approximately $200,000, though one outlier—an award to an unspecified recipient in February 2009—reached $1,228,396. The three Project Grants clustered in 2009, ranging from $50,000 to $285,452.

The source contains no information indicating grant opportunities are currently open or have been posted recently. The program appears inactive for pursuit purposes unless recent activity information is available from sources outside this dataset.