Mar 6, 2020

Washington state gets $1.9M from USDA for pest management

USDA is allocating $1.9 million to Washington state 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 almost $70 million in funding this year to support 386 projects in 48 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico. USDA provides this funding under the authority of the Plant Protection Act Section 7721.

“Washington is a critical partner in protecting U.S. agriculture,” said USDA Under Secretary Greg Ibach. “Through these projects, Washington will be able to better protect its own resources, and, 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:

• $1,232,010 to support National Clean Plant Network foundation plant stocks for multiple crops;
• $380,035 for Asian gypsy moth eradication and response;
• $270,000 to survey for Asian defoliator moths;
• $168,940 to assess the presence of nepovirus viruliferous nematodes;
• $164,418 to improve risk modeling and monitoring for invasive fruit pests;
• $150,000 to survey for stone fruit pests;
• $145,083 to support the activities of the Western States Lepidoptera Diagnostic Center;
• $100,000 to survey for grape pests;
• $100,000 to survey for forest pests;

Since 2009, USDA has supported more than 4,000 projects and provided nearly $600 million in funding through the Plant Pest and Disease Management and Disaster Prevention Program. 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.

As the United States and the world celebrate the International Year of Plant Health in 2020, this funding highlights USDA’s continued commitment to safeguarding our agricultural resources for current and future generations.

You can view the FY 2020 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.