Alabama receives over $660,000 for 17 specialty-crop projects
By Staff Writer · Published 10/21/2026, 4:11:10 PM ET
Federal funding will support grower training, marketing and research, including nursery inventory tools, crop storage and pest-management trials.
Alabama will use more than $660,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to support 17 specialty-crop projects, the state agriculture department announced Oct. 21. The funded work includes research, grower education and marketing for products such as vegetables, fruit, pecans, honey and nursery plants.
The announcement names the selected projects but does not give an award amount or timetable for each one. Although Commissioner Rick Pate encouraged participation in specialty-crop opportunities, the release does not announce a new application window or deadline for farmers seeking grants.
Several projects address the cost and handling of crops after harvest. One will test CoolBot cooling technology for collards, okra, sweet corn and southern peas. Other research will examine small-fruit storage and methods intended to improve berry production, shelf life and safety. These are investigations of potential improvements, not findings that the methods have already delivered those results.
Auburn University will develop artificial-intelligence tools for nursery inventory. The department describes the goal as helping growers count plants and make production decisions with less labor; it does not report a completed tool, a release date or measured savings.
Pest and disease studies will examine alternatives to amitraz in honey-bee management, peach bacterial-spot controls, strawberry weed management, and approaches to thrips and tomato spotted wilt virus. Another strawberry project will study biochar, a soil amendment, while a three-year tea trial at multiple locations will assess whether the crop has production potential in Alabama.
Training and market development account for another part of the package. Operation Grow will expand equipment access, instruction and peer support for beginning veteran farmers. The Gulf Coast Watermelon Association will provide production information and promote Alabama watermelons, while other projects support pecan conferences and farm tours, grower meetings and the Alabama Honey Festival.
An education pilot, Gardens 2 Afterschool, will bring garden programming to four Tuscaloosa County elementary schools. Its stated aim is to increase familiarity with and consumption of specialty crops among students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
The department says Alabama's award is part of $86.6 million in noncompetitive federal specialty-crop funding for fiscal 2026 distributed among states and other eligible jurisdictions. Its project descriptions identify intended work and goals; they do not establish how much an individual grower will receive or when a particular training session or research result will become available.
What it means
The award finances a mix of research and shared industry support rather than announcing individual payments to every specialty-crop farmer. Growers may gain access to training, market promotion or findings relevant to their crops as the projects develop. The release leaves project-level budgets, participation arrangements and most delivery dates unspecified, so those details will need to come from the organizations running each project.
Source
This State & Nation summary is based on Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries’s original release, dated 2026-10-21. The reporting and statistics above are attributed to that publication.