NMI, Pacific islands get $290K USDA grants

The Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and Hawaii will benefit from the newly approved $290,260 grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, mainly for conservation innovation projects.

The Honolulu-based Natural Resources Conservation Service announced this week the awarding of Conservation Innovation Grants intended for five projects designed to develop and refine cutting-edge technologies and approaches that can help producers maintain viable agricultural operations.

The USDA said these CIGs will provide an excellent opportunity to adapt new mainland or foreign country conservation tools to island agriculture and conditions.

Lawrence Yamamoto, director of the Pacific Islands Area for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, said this program has shown positive results thus far and USDA is hoping to use this program even more in the future.

“CIG funds pilot projects and conservation field trials that can last from one to three years,” USDA said.

The USDA, however, explained that grants for approved projects cannot exceed 50 percent of the total project cost and the federal contribution for a single project cannot exceed $75,000.

“Applicants from Hawaii, Guam, and the Common Wealth of the Northern Mariana Islands requested CIG grants totaling about $656,736. Projects must involve EQIP-eligible producers,” USDA noted. EQIP is the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.

This fiscal year’s grantees include one resource conservation and development councils and three colleges and universities.

The selected projects will address multiple resource concerns including water quality, water quantity and soil quality. These projects include:

Comparative effectiveness of an integrated pest management system for managing the insect pests on cabbage in Guam; Rehabilitating ex-urea and ex-nematicide addicts: demonstrating how a green manure/solarization system can be used to improve soil health while maintaining pineapple productivity;

Subirrigation as an innovative new technology to reduce water consumption for native plant nursery production;

Demonstration of vetiver grass as a commercial crop for conservation use; and

Demonstration of Botanical Pesticides in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

The USDA said information from these projects will hopefully lead to new technologies and practices that producers and farmers can adapt to their operation that will help sustain or improve agriculture while conserving our natural resources. [B][I](Nazario Rodriguez Jr.)[/I][/B]