Alumni News

With more than 50 varieties of carrots out there, choosing the right one to grow successfully in Hawaiʻi can be a daunting task. The need for hands-on guidance – and the public’s interest for learning more – was apparent Aug. 5 as Extension’s Jensen Uyeda and Koon-Hui Wang of the Dept. of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences held a Field Day at the Poamoho Experiment Station.

Did you know Pres. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act includes a $262.5 million investment in Ag workforce development? What’s more, USDA/NIFA-designated “institutions of higher education to foster the next generation of diverse agricultural professionals” that will receive these mega grants include CTAHR’s Dept. of Plant & Environmental Protection Sciences, which will partner with Leeward Community College and Oklahoma State University under the stewardship of PI Mohammad Arif. 

Hunger hasn’t gone away in the islands of Aloha, but thanks to the generosity of CTAHR faculty and staff, it can be temporarily addressed. For this year’s UH Food Drive, the CTAHR ‘ohana contributed 562 lbs. of food donations and more than $1,500 in monetary donations. In fact, the food donations from CTAHR alone filled up an entire warehouse pallet!

For the many homeowners in attendance, the workshop on fruit flies hosted by Extension agents at the Urban Garden Center was a valuable, knowledge-gaining experience in fruit fly identification and management. Participants listened as Extension’s Roshan Manandhar spoke about the four types of fruit flies in Hawaiʻi, three of which are bothcommon and problematic in local gardens and orchards

On the west slopes of Haleakala, Maui, lies the Kamehamenui Forest Reserve. The 3,433 acres of former ranchland was donated to the state by the Trust for Public Land in 2020, and shortly afterward, the  Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources began invertebrate surveys in order to get a baseline biodiversity estimate prior to reforestation efforts.