USDA Provides $1.4 Million to Support Projects that Protect Idaho Food Supply and Natural Resources

WASHINGTON, February 6, 2024 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is allocating more than $1.4 million to Idaho as part of a nationwide effort to strengthen the country’s infrastructure for pest detection, surveillance, and mitigation, as well as protect the U.S. nursery system. Through the authority of the Plant Protection Act Section 7721, USDA is providing more than $70 million in funding this year. These funds will support 374 projects in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico.

“Idaho has about 11.5 million acres of farmland. In 2022, Idaho potatoes alone contributed more than $1.5 billion to the local economy,” said USDA Under Secretary Jenny Moffitt. “Protecting Idaho’s agriculture is vital to the state and our national agricultural economy. These projects will help Idaho protect its harvests, which will also safeguard our national food security.”

These funds will support projects covering a range of plant health and pest mitigation activities, including:

• $641,426 toward developing pale cyst nematode immunity;
• $329,889 to support the Nez Perce Tribe’s survey for noxious, invasive weeds and production and release of biological controls;
• $310,739 to support potato cyst nematode research in the state;
• $137,036 to protect the U.S. potato industry against exotic pathogens threatening the potato trade; and
• $10,353 to develop and distribute an identification manual for exotic dacine fly plant pests.

Since 2009, USDA has supported more than 5,520 projects and provided nearly $870 million in PPA 7721 funding. These projects help USDA, and its partners quickly detect and respond to invasive plant pests and diseases. They also help our country maintain the essential infrastructure in place that enables U.S. specialty crop producers to have access to healthy, certified disease-free plants.

View the fiscal year 2024 Plant Protection Act’s Section 7721 spending plans online: www.aphis.usda.gov/ppa-projects.