Alumni News

‘Olena, or turmeric, is a culinary and medicinal plant grown primarily in subtropical and tropical regions but used by cultures across the globe. In Hawai‘i, turmeric is a specialty crop valued at more than $1M with significant interest in organic cultivation. Although local producers are faced with various challenges, such as limitations on production space and fertilizer and pesticide use, these issues can be mitigated by optimizing a regenerative production system by implementing strategies such as intercropping.

“Collaborative Leaders as Ag-ents of Change,” the 2022 Hawaiʻi Agriculture Conference, is open for business! The statewide all-agriculture event, sponsored by the Agricultural Leadership Foundation of Hawaiʻi, is scheduled for Sept. 27-28 (note: these are newly revised dates) at the Hawaiʻi Convention Center in Honolulu.

The Hawaiʻi State Legislature’s House Committee on Finance paid a friendly site visit to the Magoon Research and Education Station on July 14. Tessie Amore and Orville Baldos of the Dept. of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences led the tour of the grounds and greenhouses. The group included lawmakers and staff, CTAHR Associate Dean for Research Walter Bowen, UH VP of Government Relations Kalbert Young, and various CTAHR and UH staff.

Look what you’ve done to the place! Rain or shine, our CTAHR Extension faculty, staff, and tireless volunteers have been digging, planting, pruning, raking, and overall sprucing up the Urban Garden Center in Pearl City, Oʻahu.

The National Science Foundation has awarded UH’s “Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research” (Hawaiʻi EPSCoR) a five-year, $20-million grant for research and capacity building in support of actionable climate science through a collaboration called “Change HI.” One of these subprojects, to characterize soil moisture in Hawaiʻi, will be led by Yinphan Tsang, a surface hydrologist in the Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Management.