Hawaii Report

SARE Professional Development Program Annual Report for Hawaii
January 1 - December 31, 2010

State SARE Coordinator:

 
Summary of 2010 PDP Activities and Results

This year’s PDP activities continue to focus on disseminating data and information to support:

• Effective use of locally available soil amendments,
• Selection of crop varieties (with emphasis on crop yield, quality and production costs),
• Pest management,
• Cost of production

During 2010, the PDP program engaged 20 CES agents, 20 NRCS planners and conservationists, 5 SWCD planners, 5 agricultural consultants, 15 representatives from private nonprofit organizations, 120 master gardeners and 20 high school vocational ag. instructors. Highlights of this year include significant expansion of our training efforts with USDA NRCS, the formal establishment of our Western SARE PDP Advisory Committee and the increased use of technology to assist with training and outreach as well as program evaluation and monitoring.

Context and Overview

As the economic impacts of the recession ripple through the economy, the Hawaii SARE professional development program has collaborated more with other programs to continue to finance and provide outstanding and relevant training programs for CES agents and specialists, NRCS staff and other agricultural professionals. This year has seen an expansion of our program with NRCS and SWCD field staff, while maintaining our networks with professionals in state and county departments of agriculture and economic development, university and community college faculty, consultants and management level employees of NGOs. Our program continues to benefit from healthy working relationships with the CTAHR Office of Cooperative Extension, USDA NRCS, Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation (HFBF), the Hawaii Organic Farmers Association (HOFA), Hawaii Cooperative of Organic Farmers (HICOF), University of Hawaii Hilo Sustainable agriculture program, and programs at several UH community colleges.

Activities and Methods

Establishment of Western SARE PDP Advisory Committee

We are delighted to introduce the members of our Western SARE PDP Advisory Committee for 2010: Alton Arakaki, Linda Cox, Tane Datta, Ranae Ganske-Cerizo, Una Greenaway, Grant Hamachi, Susan Matsushima, Jerry Ornellas, and longtime WSARE PDP program assistant Jody Smith. Learn more about these talented individuals on our website. Our advisory committee reviewed our annual report and our Western SARE PDP grant proposal for the upcoming year.

Integrated Crop and Livestock Management Conference, Hilo, June 6-7 2010

This workshop was developed based on responses received from the 2009 CES agent survey. The two-day workshop, supported both with Western SARE and IPM funding sources, was attended by 55 CES and NRCS personnel and included research-based presentations by specialists and agents on Day 1 and a grant writing seminar and field trips on Day 2. Responses to the workshop were overwhelmingly positive.

Statewide USDA NRCS Workshops

The PDP coordinator conducted five separate trainings on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island, engaging a total of 45 NRCS planners on topics related to certified organic agriculture. Feedback from these workshops was positive, and NRCS agents indicated that they planned to use the information provided with 5-20 growers.

Mobile Slaughter Unit Conference

Western SARE funds were used to send two extension agents (Matt Stevenson, Glen Fukumoto) to attend the Mobile Slaughter Unit Conference held at Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, Colorado (10/7/2010). Upon returning from the event, our agents reported that the conference provided an excellent opportunity to network with other individuals investigating or implementing this technology across the country.

 “The presentations gave valuable information on the process of obtaining a grant of inspection from the USDA as well as relating the experiences of those who are now operating units. We inspected the two units at the conference which each had design strengths and weaknesses for potential use in Hawaii and the Western Pacific. Our beef, hog, and small ruminant industry clientele in Hawaii and the Western Pacific have both identified mobile and modular slaughter and processing technology as a high priority for assisting their marketing efforts. The beef industry in particular, having held a convention on this topic last September, has been actively investigating routes to overcoming the slaughter and processing bottlenecks facing the state. We intend to produce an extension publication combining what we learned at this conference with reports we have already made to various government and industry groups. This conference was timely and helped us meet the needs of our stakeholders.”

Other Related Efforts

Sustainable and Organic Agriculture Program Website: The website (originally funded from Western SARE grant projects and now used to support our Western SARE PDP program) received 16,118 visits in 2010.  Western SARE PDP program assistant Jody Smith continues to innovate and improve our online presence.

Hanai’Ai Newsletter: Targeting Hawaii growers and the agricultural professionals who serve them, our sustainable and organic agriculture e-newsletter currently has ~565 current subscribers, with active readership estimated at 225 per issue. PDP Coordinator Radovich and PDP advisory council members Cox and Smith co-edit the newsletter.  Although not funded by the PDP program, Western SARE is prominently featured in each issue. We use Constant Contact Email Service for the email service and reporting system.  Many of our topic leaders are regular contributors to this newsletter. In addition, we have improved our relationships with many agricultural professionals, nongovernmental and nonprofit groups and entities, and others who are external to CTAHR who have provided excellent articles for this publication.

YouTube HISustainAg Channel: No new videos were uploaded during 2010 however we continue to have good viewership of our library of videos.

Urban Horticulture: The Western SARE PDP coordinator and staff continue to support urban horticulture, building capacity in the Master Gardener Program in the area of sustainable agriculture by using data generated by PDP and other Western SARE funded projects. Five CES agents actively support this important statewide program. A total of 120 master gardeners were engaged directly during this reporting period.

Underserved Farmers: The Western SARE PDP coordinator, UH faculty and staff continue to support the Local Immigrant Farm Education (LIFE) Program, coordinated by CES agent Jari Sugano. 

PDP-funded Publications/Educational Materials and Products

Value-Added Products Workshop DVD

Western SARE funding was used to video-record, edit and produce a DVD of presentations for the Value-Added Products Workshop, co-sponsored by CTAHR and the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers on April 28, 2010.

Changes in Ag Professionals’ Knowledge, Skills and Action

1) Acquisition of new knowledge and skills:

• Sustainable agriculture methods continue to be validated under Hawaii conditions.
• CES staff is participating in the research, obtaining new knowledge and skills based on local tropical research for sustainable systems.
• Funding remains very limited and support from Western SARE grants is critical in maintaining this growth. Success in obtaining extramural funding has improved with data and products generated by SARE program support.
• The topic leaders within our Sustainable and Organic Agriculture Program (SOAP) are actively engaged in obtaining funding to expand their outreach into the farming community via workshops, newsletters and articles in our newsletter. (e.g. Stevenson, Wang, Hue etc).
• Program assistant Jody Smith has taken the initiative to advocate strongly for examination of new ways to improve our efficiency in delivering sustainable agriculture information while faced with budget and staffing cuts. Improved use of websites, video and email are promising. Distance education methods are our next learning goal (webinars, etc.).

 2) Changes in attitudes or understanding:

• Sustainable Agriculture continues to become “mainstream” in Hawaii as demonstrated by continued sustainable agriculture days at Hawaii State Legislature: “Ag Sustainability Day: Farm To Table; Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Economy, Sustainable Communities.”
• Partnerships across UH-CTAHR, crossing departments and linking with local agricultural consultants accelerate our efforts at adapting SA systems to tropical ecosystems.
• As more extension specialists promote the use of SA practices, CES and NRCS are adopting the SA methods as sound. Adoption of SA as a marketing strategy in now discussed as viable.

 3) Changes in behavior and action

• Increased demand for information on local soil amendments has been strong.
• New sustainable agricultural enterprises, including 100 acres of organic vegetable production on Maui, indicates reduced risk perceived with starting new sustainable agricultural business.

 Unintended Outcomes

 See above for description of new partnerships

Involvement of others in state PDP planning and implementation:

See above for details of collaborations.

• The PDP coordinator met with Pacific Islands Area USDA NRCS State Office staff to plan training events for NRCS field staff.
• The Hawaii PDP advisory committee evaluated the annual report