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Root and Berry

Root and Berry 11 April 2018

Root and Berry

Big Island Extension’s Andrea Kawabata, Jen Burt, and Matthew Miyahira represented CTAHR at the 11th annual Kona Coffee Farmer’s Association Coffee and Small Farms Expo at the Old Kona Airport, where they discussed issues such as the coffee berry borer and root-knot nematode.

Fair Without Fair Weather

Fair Without Fair Weather 11 April 2018

Fair Without Fair Weather

Pouring rain didn’t stop Kaua‘i islanders from pouring into the Garden Fair this year. Jointly hosted by CTAHR and the Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau, the 23rd Annual Garden Fair at the Kaua‘i Community College featured a series of CTAHR garden and agriculture presentations.

Learning to Grow

Learning to Grow 11 April 2018

Learning to Grow

CTAHR students and other volunteers engaged 169 elementary first- and fourth-graders in garden activities over the spring semester, teaching them about nutrition for people and plants.

Steering in the Right Direction

Steering in the Right Direction 11 April 2018

Steering in the Right Direction

A Moloka‘i 4-H participant and his award winning animals were featured in a USDA Farm Service Agency Fencepost newsletter article on the FSA Youth Loan.

It’s Gene-ius!

It’s Gene-ius! 11 April 2018

It’s Gene-ius!

The highly popular and acclaimed Gene-ius Day program is the subject of a recent laudatory article on the UH Foundation website that describes how the original program has expanded into three complementary outreach efforts that are reaching and teaching more kids than ever before!

Food Safety in the Pacific

Food Safety in the Pacific 11 April 2018

Food Safety in the Pacific

The Western Regional Center to Enhance Food Safety held its second annual meeting, and 10 members of the FSMA team of UH, University of Guam, and the American Samoa Community College, including Extension agents Kylie Wong and Joshua Silva, attended to deliver progress reports.

Hot Conversation

Hot Conversation 4 April 2018

Hot Conversation

CTAHR wildfire researcher Clay Trauernicht recently joined other experts on disaster vulnerability and resilience in the Islands on Hawai‘i Public Radio program The Conversation.
 

Try Kaua‘i

Try Kaua‘i 4 April 2018

Try Kaua‘i

Junior Extension Agent Emilie Kirk welcomed edible crop and flower farmers to a free spring workshop and tour of the Kaua‘i Agricultural Research Center.
 

A Graftin’ Good Time

A Graftin’ Good Time 4 April 2018

A Graftin’ Good Time

Hawai‘i Island CTAHR Extension staff members teamed up with USDA to offer hands-on avocado-grafting workshops for 45 growers and promote their ‘Sharwil’ Avocado Project.

Sustainable Swine

Sustainable Swine 4 April 2018

Sustainable Swine

Rajesh Jha (HNFAS) recently offered a training course on “Feed and Nutrition Management” for a group of young ethnic-minority farmers in Nepal, in which he provided knowledge and hands-on skills on utilizing local feedstuffs and food waste as a sustainable source of feed for swine.

Feeding Greatness

Feeding Greatness 28 March 2018

Feeding Greatness

Research by Rajesh Jha and his Animal Sciences students focuses on locally grown feeds for chicken to lower costs, improve environmental sustainability and improve flavor of local fowl.

On Parade

On Parade 21 March 2018

On Parade

The Waimanalo Research Station will be the home base for the 3rd Annual Parade of Farms, presented by the O‘ahu Resource and Conservation Development Council, on Saturday, May 5, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. This year’s parade will be featuring farms in Waimanalo.

Healthy in Guam

Healthy in Guam 21 March 2018

Healthy in Guam

Former CHL trainee and now Guam EFNEP coordinator Tanisha Franquez Aflague was recently featured in Fresh From the Field, NIFA’s newsletter highlighting success stories of its grantees, about her work with the Children’s Healthy Living (CHL) Project. 

Heritage Roots

Heritage Roots 14 March 2018

Heritage Roots

A Taro Field Day will be held at the Waimanalo Research Station on Saturday, March 17, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.

More Trees, Please

More Trees, Please 14 March 2018

More Trees, Please

Rich Criley (TPSS) participated in the Trees for Honolulu’s Future workshop on March 9 by showing the series of Extension publications he has written called Expanding Tree Diversity in Hawai‘i’s Landscapes that provide alternatives for landscapers and home growers to the most commonly used trees.

Prune Your Plants

Prune Your Plants 14 March 2018

Prune Your Plants

Cooperative Extension’s Andrea Kawabata (TPSS) and Stuart Nakamoto (HNFAS), along with Tracie Matsumoto from USDA ARS DKI PBARC, hosted two coffee-pruning field days at the Kona Cooperative Extension and Research Station.

New Faces: Roshan Manandhar

New Faces: Roshan Manandhar 14 March 2018

New Faces: Roshan Manandhar

Welcome to Roshan Manandhar, who is joining the Cooperative Extension team in Kaua‘i County as an assistant Extension agent! Roshan has both MS and PhD degrees in entomology from UHM, with post-doctoral experience at Lincoln University in Missouri. 

Tropical Showcase

Tropical Showcase 14 March 2018

Tropical Showcase

The Variety Showcase Goes Tropical event hosted by GoFarm Hawai‘i and the Culinary Breeding Network at Kapi‘olani Community College was an exciting celebration that brought an array of exciting crop varietals together with culture and cuisine, blended brilliantly in bite-size tastings by local chefs.

Up, Up, and Away!

Up, Up, and Away! 7 March 2018

Up, Up, and Away!

Hawai‘i 4-H is highlighted in the National Institute for Food and Agriculture’s Annual Report. The section on youth development notes the STEM-enrichment activities, such as rocketry, that 4-H brings to youth in the Islands. 

New Faces: Casey Bohan

New Faces: Casey Bohan 28 February 2018

New Faces: Casey Bohan

Welcome to Casey Bohan, who has just started at Waiakea Research Station as an agricultural research technician. 

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8 April 2020

Pigs and Papaya

CTAHR Extension is helping two industries save each other

Pigs and Papaya

The pig farmers had no feed for their pigs. The papaya farmers had no market for their papayas. But CTAHR brought them together.

Both local industries have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some 75% of swine producers’ feed comes from food waste generated by schools, restaurants, and hotels. But this supply has dwindled radically since Hawai‘i residents began sheltering in place. Papaya growers have found their markets slashed since US Mainland distributors stopped buying papaya during the crisis, as consumers focus on canned and other long-keeping items they can stockpile.

Faced with the shortage, pig farmers quickly switched to purchasing Mainland grain. But this caused a shortage of pig pellets at local feed stores, leaving the Islands without feed until the next boat. It’s not a sustainable solution, either. Pig pellets are more costly and require more fossil fuel to transport, and local farmers have to rely on a supply chain that may break down at any stage. Transporting large amounts of feed might also strain a shipping industry struggling to keep Hawai‘i supplied with essentials for humans.

At the same time, papaya growers were in danger of going under. Approximately 50 families, independent growers and members of the non-profit Hawaii Papaya Industry Association (HIPA) are in desperate need of immediate assistance. They have no other income than selling papayas, and their market has crashed, yet they do not qualify for unemployment. 

CTAHR’s Role

CTAHR Extension livestock agent Mike DuPonte, a member of the Hawaii Island Pork Association, began coordinating with HIPA president Eric Weinert of the large Hilo packing plant and exporter Calavo Growers.

Together, they’ve created a short-term means to protect both industries and Hawai‘i’s precious food supply. Pigs readily eat papaya, and there’s plenty to be had. Mike is coordinating with the animal farmers needing a food source by providing an estimate of need. Papaya farmers will pick and supply the papaya to be used as feed. Eric Weinert will open the packing plant as a marshalling yard to receive and distribute the papaya. HPIA will provide forklifts, scales, and recordkeeping.

It’s not a complete solution—papaya doesn’t provide all the nutrients that pigs need over the long term, and swine producers can’t afford to pay the prices that papaya farmers usually command from human consumers. So CTAHR agents are also helping members of both organizations get financial funding and other emergency aid from the federal government and large corporations like Land O’ Lakes, which runs a feed and shipping program and will work with farmers to subsidize them.

But for now, this locally grown partnership is keeping both industries afloat while they explore other solutions, ensuring that essential elements of our Islands’ food sufficiency can survive.