This is a relatively new program and yet interest in it has grown extensively.
New projects expand the commodities supported to prunes, citrus, rice, walnuts and strawberries.
However, there are many other commodities and regions that have expressed interest and will be looking for support in the next few years. The BIFS program should be expanded to enable support for projects in new commodities and new areas in the state so as to assist California agriculture with these challenges. The BIFS program should expand even further support of innovative animal production projects. This will become critical with increasing land-use pressure from the expanding urban and suburban areas and with increasing pressure from the consumer for agriculture to address environmental and human health concerns. See Attachment 4 for an overview of the BIFS-like projects currently underway in California.