DeSantis Signs Budget Providing Vital Funding for CRAFT
Column • July 10, 2025
By: Phillip Rucks
The Florida citrus industry is celebrating nearly $140 million dollars of investments Gov. Ron DeSantis approved in the 2025-2026 State Budget to help revitalize the industry.
The bulk of this money ($104.5 million) will be devoted to the Citrus Research and Field Trial Foundation, which is dedicated to large scale field trials for citrus research.
“The CRAFT Foundation is the conduit for moving citrus research out of the lab and into commercial-scale field trials,” explains Steven Hall, the executive director of the CRAFT Foundation.
Much of this research will be focused on combating the citrus greening, which has long been the largest issue for our state’s growers.
“This funding will be used to assist growers in planting new trees and continuing to understand the effects of treatments for greening, with the goal of expediting the revitalization of the industry,” Hall says.
This will work by providing payments to growers who participate in research projects, such as rootstock and scion trials. These growers will then report their successes and failures to CRAFT, and the results of these trials will be published for the benefit of all the state’s growers.
CRAFT, now in its sixth year, is already starting to see results from the early stages of the program.
“We are continuing to do analysis of the data we have already received through the program so far, and we will be providing that to growers over the course of the next year or so,” Hall says.
This data will help our citrus industry understand what new innovations work in the field and what doesn’t.
“In essence, the CRAFT program gives us the ability to observe citrus growers’ unique practices in real world conditions. What works well in a lab or research grove doesn’t always work under real world conditions. This program will work across all components of the industry to try to regain what we’ve lost due to the ravaging of citrus diseases,” Hall explains.
It’s in part thanks to the hard work of the legislature that this funding is being made available, which in addition to funding for the craft program, includes funding for cost sharing programs, marketing efforts, and other research and development programs.
“We’re thankful for the vision and leadership of Senate President Albritton, the support of Mr. Wilton Simpson and Speaker Daniel Perez and the entire legislature, and we’re excited for the trust they’ve given us with this funding. We look forward to partnering with our growers, and encourage all growers to participate,” Hall says.
For those growers interested in signing up for the program, the application period will be opening in August, with contracts issued later in the fall.