About the Coalition
The Coalition for Specialty Crop Innovation is a united voice for specialty crop growers, trade associations, food and farm businesses, and organizations committed to supporting the deployment of cutting-edge technologies for U.S. specialty crop growers through the passage of the Supporting Innovation in Agriculture Act.
The Supporting Innovation in Agriculture Act
The Supporting Innovation in Agriculture Act would provide a time-limited investment tax credit to specialty crop growers to help defray a portion of the high capital costs associated with the deployment of precision agriculture technologies and controlled environment agriculture technologies. Through these provisions, the Supporting Innovation in Agriculture Act would fill an important policy gap for the diverse domestic specialty crop industry and complement other important efforts that Congress will consider.
Why this matters
Specialty crop producers are facing unprecedented challenges, including more frequent supply chain disruptions, worsening extreme weather and drought conditions, increasing pest and disease pressures, rising food imports and inflationary pressures, and the repercussions of labor shortages.
Thankfully, we are also witnessing the dawn of a new innovation age in agriculture with commercial technologies coming online every day aimed squarely at helping growers rise to meet the challenges. Unfortunately, existing policies are often ill-fitted or not applicable to properly incentive the deployment of these technologies at scale.
The Supporting Innovation in Agriculture Act seeks to leverage tax policy to deploy technologies that will assist producers with:
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managing, tracking, or reducing crop production inputs
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optimizing weed, pest, and disease identification
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managing and tracking crop harvest and on-farm storage to improve efficiencies, reduce waste, and maintain environmental, and
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improving on-farm water conservation and irrigation efficiency.
Examples of technologies and systems supported by the legislation:
