Specialty Crop Mechanization Prize Challenge of 2018

This bill requires the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a Specialty Crop Mechanization Challenges program to carry out prize competitions for the mechanization of specialty crop production. (Specialty crops are fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, and horticulture and nursery crops, including floriculture.)

The program must include at least one prize competition for solutions to automate or alleviate stresses on the workforce during each of the following:

• the planting of specialty crops,
• tasks associated with the management of specialty crops,
• the harvesting of specialty crops, and
• processing and preparing specialty crops for distribution.

USDA must assemble prize committees to determine the scope, details, requirements, judging criteria, and incentives for each competition.