Community CROPS, a Lincoln nonprofit group, announced last week that it will receive $98,598 to study the challenges of people who want to start growing produce for farmers' markets.

The project will be undertaken thanks to a USDA Farmers Market Promotion Program grant, and will run through 2011 in Lincoln.

"There has been an increased interest in locally grown food and we are interested in helping people to grow food for their families and their communities," Ingrid Kirst, Executive Director of Community CROPS, said in a statement.

"We have seen an increased demand for garden space every year since we began organizing community gardens. Over the last two years, we have doubled the number of community garden spaces in Lincoln, and still more people want to grow their own food.

"This is an opportunity to help some of those same families make the leap into entrepreneurship and start their own small businesses selling value-added agricultural products," said Kirst.