Mar 7, 2019Idaho awarded $1.7 million from USDA to fight pests, including pale cyst nematode
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is allocating $1.7 million to Idaho as part of its effort to strengthen the nation’s infrastructure for pest detection and surveillance, identification, and threat mitigation, and to safeguard the U.S. nursery production system. Overall, USDA is providing $66 million in funding this year to support 407 projects in 49 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Northern Mariana Islands. USDA provides this funding under the authority of the Plant Protection Act Section 7721.
“Idaho is a critical partner in protecting U.S. agriculture,” said USDA Under Secretary Greg Ibach. “With this funding, Idaho will be able to better protect its own resources and, in doing so, contribute to USDA’s mission of keeping our nation’s agriculture economy healthy and strong.”
These funds will support projects covering a range of plant health and pest mitigation activities, including the following:
- $657,312 for work to build potato crop immunity to potato cyst nematodes;
- $647,411 toward eradication strategies for Globodera pallida, the pale cyst nematode;
- $319,378 to the Nez Perce Tribe, a federally recognized tribal nation, for the tribe’s pest bio-control work and noxious and invasive weed survey and control programs;
- $104,864 to support survey work for gall-forming nematodes of the family Anguinidae in the Western U.S. using newly developed molecular identification tools; and
- $16,190 for the Idaho stone fruit commodity survey for invasive insect pests.
Since 2009, USDA has supported 2,346 projects and provided approximately $293.5 million in funding under the Plant Protection Act. Collectively, these projects allow USDA and its partners to quickly detect and rapidly respond to invasive pests and diseases. They also help our country maintain the infrastructure necessary to make sure that disease-free, certified planting materials are available to U.S. specialty crop producers.
You can view the FY 2019 Plant Protection Act Section 7721 spending plans on the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) website at www.aphis.usda.gov/ppa-projects.
APHIS created the Hungry Pests public outreach program to empower Americans with the knowledge they need to leave these “hungry pests” behind. Visit www.aphis.usda.gov/hungrypests to learn more about invasive plant pests and diseases impacting your area and how you can help.
