Florida Citrus Mutual has commended the US Department of Agriculture for announcing a programme on Wednesday (17 September) designed to encourage growers to re-plant citrus.
As part of the Tree Assistance Program (TAP), eligible growers can cost share with the USDA for diseased tree removal, re-planting including labour and nursery trees. The TAP is only available to Florida growers.
'This is really good news and should go a long way to incentivise eligible growers to re-plant citrus,' said Michael Sparks, executive vice-president and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual. 'We are a resilient bunch; growers want to re-plant even in this challenging environment. The new TAP should help shoulder some of the risk.
'I can't thank US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Florida Farm Service Agency executive director Rick Dantzler for their hard work in making this programme happen,' he added.
In a conference call announcing the TAP, Vilsack said Florida citrus growers will be eligible for up to 50 per cent of the cost of the removal of diseased trees and site preparation, 65 per cent of the cost of replanting and labour, and 65 per cent of the cost of seedlings.
Losses must have occurred on or after 1 October 2011, and individual stands must have sustained a mortality loss of 15 per cent after adjustment for normal mortality.
Florida growers are now battling citrus greening, or HLB, a bacterial disease vectored by the Asian citrus psyllid. It attacks the vascular system of a tree and can kill it within two years.
Citrus greening is endemic to Florida and can be found in all 32 commercial citrus producing counties.
