High-Risk Niche Crop Industry Booms

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Each eligible state would receive $2 million a year. The bill says all states are eligible if they submit the appropriate grant request by the required deadline. The remainder would be divided in grant allocations, based on the value of specialty crop production in a given state.

Ose notes the bulk of Californias agricultural production falls into the specialty crop category, which is defined as anything but wheat, feed grains, oil seeds, cotton, rice, peanuts and tobacco. The proposed congressional action also would fund marketing campaign efforts, promote trade opportunities and provide miscellaneous funding to state agriculture departments.

If passed, the bill would expand the scope of a farm assistance package approved by Congress in August 2001, which allocated block grants for specialty crops but favored commodities grown in the Midwest. The proposed H.R. 3242 would extend that assistance to specialty crops in California.

Theres a benefit to our country, from a nutritional standpoint, to produce a variety of safe, affordable fruits and vegetables, says Ose, and California is a great place to grow those things.

Its a message being conveyed by California's Department of Farming and Agriculture's $70 million Buy California Initiative, which supplies funding for agricultural marketing, education and research. With help from a $2.8 million federal grant, it also supports the California Institute for the Study of Specialty Crops and the University of Californias Small Farm Program. While leaders rally for funding, UC researchers and farm advisers look for ways to maximize growers profits.

Concurrent with UCCE blueberry trials in Fresno County, Ingels is testing soil solarization in strawberry cultivation in Rio Linda, using clear plastic to kill weed seeds and disease organisms.

Although it may net bigger, healthier berries, the process uses a specialized tractor attachment, creating a problem because most small-scale farmers here don't have tractors and would have to do it all by hand, Ingels says. But even if they have to pack it down by hand, we found the cost per acre for solarization is still much cheaper than traditional fumigation.

Jumping Aboard

Cultivation trials can help guide growers to improved practices and increased profits, steer farmers away from incompatible crops or direct them to diversified production, which would allow them to lead the drive to lucrative niche markets before others climb aboard.

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