The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is allocating nearly $13 million to assist California growers with addressing pest pressures. As part of its effort to strengthen the nation’s infrastructure for mitigating pest damage, USDA is providing more than $70 million in funding to support projects that help with pest detection and surveillance, identification, and to safeguard the U.S. nursery production system.
A total of $12.7 million will be headed towards California to be divided up between a multitude of projects. Nearly $5 million will be used to survey for harmful exotic fruit fly populations. A combined $5 million will be used to support California’s ag detector dog teams, along with supporting the National Clean Plant Network. Nearly $2 million will be going towards supporting the state’s Emergency Plant Health Response Teams. An additional $850,000 will be divided between support for surveying for Asian defoliator moths and citrus pests.
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