- In early December, American Pistachio Growers announced it was allotted $5 million of over $62 million in California Department of Food and Agriculture's Healthy Soils Block Grants' and will be helping area farmers across the Central Valley tap into the grant money and make sure they receive it.
- Wesley Wilson, Director of APG's Member Services and Communications, tells 23ABC that previously grants were harder to access for smaller producers because most lack the resources to either apply for or fulfill the grant.
- The applications for APG's block of grants will open on January 1, 2024.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Earlier this month, the American Pistachio Growers announced that it received $5 million out of an allotment of California Department of Food and Agriculture "Healthy Soil block grants," and they want to help local farmers get their hands on it.
Earlier this year, the California Department of Food and Agriculture announced the introduction of the Healthy Soils Block Grants, a series of grants provided to partner organizations across California, who will then help Ag producers in their area access the grants.
Wesley Wilson is the Director of Member Services for [APG] who noticed a lot of the grants available to Ag producers previously, were direct from the state to growers, which were tough to access in many scenarios. Now under the new program, 14 different organizations including APG will help growers get access to grant funding totaling over $62 million.
“American Pistachio Growers is not only going to serve as the administrator, but we're going to serve as the technical assistance provider for the growers. So we’re going to help every step of the way from filling out the application to being there to help them select the right vendor or supplier for the project that they’re implementing, we’re going to make sure the project is implemented correctly and that’s often where there’s a miss and they don’t get the funding.”
So, just how important is soil and soil health for growers? Daniel Terry, the Vice President of Ag Products for Holloway Ag, says it’s arguably one of, if not the most important, component for Ag production. But when it comes to working on soil health, it’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all thing.
“The best thing you can do, it’s money up front, but pull a soil sample, pull a tissue sample, pull a water sample, see how everything looks, see where everything is at, and then make a gameplan," said Terry. "Every soil is different, what’s been put into it is different, so it can be very minimal and it can be very expensive.”
The block grant's administered by APG will pay out up to $200,000 across three years for growers accepted to benefit from it.
Applications for the Healthy Soils block grants open on January 1st, 2024..
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