Plants For Human Health Institute

The North Carolina Value-Added Cost Share (NCVACS) program this week announced the recipients of its 2012 equipment cost share awards. NCVACS awarded $269,883 to 13 agricultural operations across the state.

PHHI is looking for interns to work and study at its state-of-the-art scientific facility at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis this summer.

Graduate students of Dr. Penelope Perkins-Veazie, professor with N.C. State Plants for Human Health Institute, were recently recognized for their research projects at the American Society of Horticultural Science (ASHS) Southern Region meeting in Birmingham, Ala.

Two scientists with the N.C. State University Plants for Human Health Institute at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis are studying more than 300 cabbage varieties as part of the initial phase in a cabbage breeding program.

N.C. State University’s N.C. Value-Added Cost Share (NCVACS) program provided more than $100,000 in matching funds to help eight N.C. agricultural producers secure nearly $1.2 million in USDA grants.

The North Carolina Value-Added Cost Share program is accepting applications for the 2012 equipment cost share funding cycle. The program provides up to $50,000 to agricultural producers and processors seeking to purchase specialized equipment to start or grow a value-added operation.

North Carolina blackberry growers have an updated sample operating budget to guide them in tracking, maintaining and managing their business costs.

Dr. Penelope Perkins-Veazie, a postharvest physiologist with the Plants for Human Health Institute, received the 2011 Vegetable Publication Award from the American Society for Horticultural Science.

Two N.C. State University faculty members based at the N.C. Research Campus will be instructors in the 2012 Piedmont Farm School, presented by N.C. Cooperative Extension. Mike Roberts and Jonathan Baros, both affiliated with the N.C. State agricultural and resource economics department, will teach business planning seminars. Baros is also a member of N.C. MarketReady, the Cooperative Extension outreach of the Plants for Human Health Institute.

The N.C. Value-Added Cost Share (NCVACS) program, administered by N.C. MarketReady, recently selected 12 agricultural operations to receive nearly $170,000 in funding for value-added equipment purchases.