Agriculture

Plant Protection Division

Statewide Outcomes:

The Plant Protection Division supports the following statewide outcomes:

·         A thriving economy that encourages business growth and employment opportunities.

·         A clean, healthy environment with sustainable uses of natural resources.

·         Sustainable options to safely move people, goods, services and information.

PPD activities support three statewide outcomes. A thriving economy is supported and maintained by PPD program activities that ensure access to international and interstate markets, protect grain producers and produce dealers from loss, and ensure that purchasers of seed, seed potatoes, and nursery stock receive good quality and viable material. A clean, healthy environment is maintained by excluding or minimizing the impacts of serious forest pests such as gypsy moth and emerald ash borer. The efficient and safe movement of commodities is maintained by export certification activities, the grading of produce, and through seed and seed potato certification.

Context:

The Plant Protection Division (PPD) of MDA works to ensure that plants sold, planted, exported or stored in Minnesota meet purity, viability and health standards. This goal is achieved in two main ways:

• Inspecting and certifying plants and plant parts (such as seed, grain, fruit, logs, lumber), and
• Excluding, eradicating, or managing plant pests that threaten Minnesota’s agriculture or environment.

The purpose of the PPD’s inspection and certification programs is to help ensure that Minnesota’s plant commodities meet standards necessary for business such the import requirements of our foreign trading partners, specific grades of quality established in business contracts, the viability and purity of seeds, the general health of nursery stock, and the absence of harmful plant pests. Direct beneficiaries of PPD’s inspection and certification activities include commodity producers, exporters, and produce purchasers. In addition, consumers of food and feed benefit through access to high-quality foodstuffs.

The purpose of the PPD’s plant pest programs is to keep Minnesota as free as possible from harmful plant pests, such as emerald ash borer, gypsy moth, potato cyst nematode, and noxious weeds. To achieve this goal, the division’s efforts include: surveying both agricultural crops and urban plants for invasive plant pests; auditing inspections of imported nursery stock; issuing quarantines on the sale and/or transport of infested plants; and conducting treatment programs designed to combat each specific pest. Beneficiaries of these programs include farmers, the timber industry, the recreation industry, and the general public.

Fee-generated dedicated funds comprise over 45 percent of the division’s funding, and are used to recover costs associated with seed inspections, nursery inspections, grain elevator audits, certification of seed potato stocks, and the processing of export certificates. Some 30 percent of the division’s programs are funded through federal grants, which are used for terrestrial invasive pest programs. There is no guarantee that these federal funds will continue in the future. About 25 percent of the division’s funds are from the state General Fund and are used to support regulatory programs and to conduct surveys.

Strategies:

Certification of plant commodities intended for export, sale, planting or storage is based on a combination of strategies: Actual visual inspection by highly trained staff, collection of samples, field surveys, laboratory analysis, food safety production audits, and review of records.

Plant pest activities are based on a system of prevention, early detection, rapid response and management. Prevention and early detection rely on trapping and surveying in conjunction with outreach to the general public and/or affected industries. Rapid response and management relies on pest treatment (such as pheromone flake treatments for gypsy moth) while management typically involves longer-term strategies such as biological control for noxious weeds or emerald ash borer.

PPD’s key partners include: farmers, exporters, the nursery industry, the grain industry, seed producers and handlers, municipal and county governments, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the United States Forest Service and the United States Department of Agriculture.

Results:

Key results of PPD activities are: Minnesota plant products are exported to international markets without delay or difficulties; produce for sale is quickly inspected; nursery stock, seeds and seed potatoes sold in Minnesota are viable and free of serious plant pests. In addition, export markets for a number of agricultural and forest products are maintained because MDA surveys are able to demonstrate the absence of plant pests such as Karnal bunt and potato cyst nematode. Finally, the adverse economic, social and recreational impacts of plant pests such as noxious weeds, gypsy moth and emerald ash borer are reduced or eliminated.

Performance Measures Notes:

Export certificates issued in 1-3 business days: “Previous” is FY 2007. “Current” is FY 2011. All export certificates are issued within one to three business days. See www.mda.state.mn.us/licensing/licensetypes/phyto.aspx. For more on the expansion of MN agricultural exports, see www.mda.state.mn.us/food/business/~/media/Files/food/business/economics/agexportprofile.ashx.

Hundredweight of produce inspected: “Previous” is calendar year 2011. “Current” is calendar year 2012. Hundredweight of produce inspected is extracted from inspection reports submitted to USDA, AMS, Specialty Crop Branch, as reported in the MDA Plant Protection Annual Report. For further detail, see www.mda.state.mn.us/licensing/licensetypes/fruit-veg-insp/fruitandvegetable.aspx

Emerald ash borer traps: “Previous” is FY08. “Current” is FY 2011. Trapping is highly dependent on federal funding, which is expected to drop dramatically in the next fiscal year. For more on emerald ash borer, see www.mda.state.mn.us/plants/pestmanagement/eab.aspx.

Nursery stock grower acreage inspected: “Previous” is FY 2010. “Current” is FY11. For further information,
see: www.mda.state.mn.us/licensing/licensetypes/nurseryprogram.aspx.