The Louisiana State University AgCenter and partners in three other states will share $518,000 over three years to develop an educational Web site about blueberries.

The federal grant is to teach people in the Southeast how to grow the crop and to encourage people to eat them, using recipes, nutritional details and other information.

The AgCenter’s partners are the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service in Poplarville, Miss.; Mississippi State University; Auburn University; and North Carolina State University.

The project’s director, Natalie Hummel, says, traditionally, most major blueberry production occurs in other parts of the country. She sees the site as an “economic development opportunity” for the South.