Recipient Organization
UNIV OF HAWAII
3190 MAILE WAY
HONOLULU,HI 96822
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The revitalization of Hawaii's agricultural economy requires the development of a skilled workforce through practical, experiential education in agriculture. GoFarm Hawaii (GFH) will prepare students for careers in food, agriculture, and natural resources by offering a certificate-based farmer training program that provides a non-traditional, experiential education pathway for adult learners. GFH will also provide business technical assistance to existing and aspiring farmers. This year, the project will expand GFH's beginning farmer training opportunities on Maui, provide opportunities for mentoring and apprenticeship, integrate more content on canoe crop and marketing, develop additional resources, provide enhanced business technical assistance, and develop and deploy an orchard course. In addition, multiple events will encourage networking and collaboration with NH/UR communities. GFH will also pilot youth outreach and youth educator support on Kauai. The project activities have statewide reach, fill identified needs, and create immediate economic and food system impact.As a Cooperative Extension program under CTAHR, GoFarm Hawaii (GFH) strengthens the institution's educational capacities by offering non-credit pathways that combine practical technical knowledge and skills with business and financial training. With this grant, GFH will improve and expand agricultural education and support targeted to adult learners across the state who want to become farm entrepreneurs or obtain employment in the local food system.This Integrated Research, Education and Extension project will help improve Hawaii's local economy, reduce its dependence on imported food, and increase food sustainability by educating and developing the local agricultural workforce. With ~85-90% of its food imported via air and sea, Hawaii is highly vulnerable to disruptions in food supply. The state is in transition from a plantation-based agricultural economy towards a diversified smaller-scale structure of farmland ownership and management. Hawaii's food production capacity is being limited by the aging farmer population (avg. 60 years old), lack of farm workforce, and farm business sustainability.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Objective 1: Expand training opportunities on Maui:GFH will relocate and expand opportunities at the Maui training site. GFH has partnered with a large private landowner on Maui to utilize a 15-acre parcel for relocation of the Maui training site and establishment of an incubation farm site. The parcel was formerly part of a sugar cane plantation, and the GFH training will demonstrate techniques for restoring degraded soil to productive farmland, enabling participants to use these skills to also farm on former plantation lands, which are prevalent throughout the state. The development of the new site will provide new educational opportunities on Maui.Objective 2: Provide opportunities for mentoring and apprenticeship:GFH will pilot a pre-AgIncubator mentor/apprenticeship program. GFH will pilot: 1) graduate farmers providing forty hours of mentorship/on-farm work experience for new graduates interested in entering the AgIncubator phase, sharing their valuable knowledge and skills in farm start-up and efficiency, and 2) the AgBusiness team will provide enhanced business technical assistance to new AgIncubator farmers. The enhanced assistance will include regular 1:1 meetings to support business progress. These pilot initiatives will provide leadership opportunities for graduates, increase experiential learning, and increase the likelihood of business success.Further, the GFH Advisory Panel members (composed of UH Faculty and CTAHR Extension staff) will share research lessons learned with GFH staff so that they can in turn share these with GFH students/graduates. These cooperative linkages will provide mentorship opportunities between Advisory Panel members and staff and increase research impacts through practical commercial implementation.Objective 3: Operate and improve GFH Beginning Farmer Training Program (BFTP): GFH will offer a science-based, non-credit certificate program at five locations. The program will be improved by integrating more content on canoe crops, such as taro and breadfruit (both production and marketing), and developing a new resource library for students.The GFH BFTP is an established farmer training program with locations across Hawaii. Each GFH program site has a full-time farm coach/instructor and agricultural land for experiential learning. The program prepares students for careers and builds mentorship opportunities in agriculture, allowing them to start independent businesses or fill key roles within the industry. BFTP is a low cost, non-credit certificate program open to adult learners. Curriculum topics include soils, plant physiology and nutrition, diseases, weeds, pests and pesticides, irrigation, equipment, post-harvest handling, food safety, business/financial/crop planning, marketing, cost of production, cash flow projection, recordkeeping, employee management, regulations, financing, and land acquisition. Topics are taught by the site coach and subject matter experts from the UH system, agriculture industry, and support agencies. Visits to commercial farms are incorporated to allow participants to see how lessons are applied in practice, and for network and mentorship development. These visits provide opportunities for students to develop their own revenue and business model ideas.Objective 4: Provide and improve agribusiness training and technical assistance to current and aspiring farmers (including BFTP students):GFH will support aspiring farmers through in-depth agribusiness training to BFTP students at five locations statewide and ongoing business consulting to those in AgIncubator. In addition, ABT will provide technical assistance and business coaching to farmers statewide. Program will be improved by piloting an enhanced business technical assistance program to new AgIncubators. The Agribusiness Team (ABT) will provide One-on-One Business Consulting; Agribusiness Workshops and Classes; and support Industry Initiatives. ABT services include business startup support, business planning/development/feasibility, financial analysis (including cash flow projections/cost of production), marketing assistance, value-added product development, agritourism development, project planning, and general consulting. Additionally, ABT provides business training for farmers on topics such as business goal setting/planning, accessing loans and grants, recordkeeping, financial analysis, sales/marketing, developing new revenue streams, and value-added product/agritourism development.Objective 5: Develop and provide an orchard-based course: GFH will develop orchard education curriculum and provide training. Training on orchard development, management, and marketing adds an important complementary educational component to GFH's current curriculum, which is focused primarily on vegetable production. GFH will leverage knowledge gained from prior ANNH grants to develop and pilot a more robust orchard education curriculum. This new education will build opportunity for increased farm revenue, crop diversification, and new markets that will strengthen farm businessesObjective 6: Increase networking and collaboration with NH/UR communities: GFH will collaborate with NH community and organizations to showcase NH farmers with the broader community.To inspire more NH participation in FANH careers, multiple events will be held to engage the NH population. First, in prior ANNH projects, videos to showcase how NH values and work are integrated into contemporary agriculture were developed and translated. The English videos have already reached over 800 views. GFH is actively collaborating with the UH Native Hawaiian Student Services (NHSS) office on translation. To promote the translated videos, GFH and UH NHSS will organize an event at a local NH gathering space to showcase this work.Second, a farmer profile series will be developed in collaboration with UH NHSS. Work by local NH farmers will be represented through photography and moolelo (storytelling). GFH and UH NHSS will create visual profiles and organize a separate event at a local NH gathering space to showcase this work. The first and second event will each include moderated discussions with the featured farmers.Third, workshops will be held on NH farms so the community can gather and share knowledge, practices, and inspire future producers.Objective 7: Provide marketing and networking workshops focused on NH crops and farmers: GFH will provide canoe crops education and farmer networking. Canoe crops are plants that were brought to Hawaii by ancestral Polynesians. Kalo (taro) is a staple crop of cultural significance to NHs and local consumption outstrips supply, creating a strong demand for more local production. Through a prior ANNH grant, a number of short courses about canoe crop production are underway. Students have asked for further education on marketing and sales opportunities for these products. Workshops will be held and curriculum will be modified to include this information. Developing kalo and `ulu (breadfruit) production and market knowledge will lead to a stronger connection to these culturally relevant crops, increased farm revenue, crop diversification, and new markets.Objective 8: Provide K-12 support and career exposure on Kauai: GFH will pilot youth outreach and youth educator support. Of the four counties in Hawaii, Kauai County has the smallest population and the most limited post-high school FANH educational options for those interested in agriculture. Targeting youth to increase awareness of FANH options including the GFH educational pathway is particularly relevant here. GFH will pilot work with Kauai PK-12 educators to provide 1) production expertise to build educator knowledge and 2) GFH field trips. This will provide support for FANH programs and expose students to careers in agriculture.
Project Methods
METHODS:This project bridges science and practice with the goal of developing Hawaii's agricultural businesses and workforce. This project incorporates best practices outlined by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition including peer mentorship, technical assistance, networking, and teaching methods while incorporating leadership, business, and self-assessment opportunities. To meet the needs of adult-student leaners, the project will employ various methods to accommodate multiple learning styles (including virtual and in-person; readings, videos, and live demonstrations; written and oral assignments; guided instruction and independent work; personalized, inquiry-based, and flipped classroom opportunities; mentoring, shadowing, and apprenticeships). The project will focus on Student Experiential Learning, as students learn production and business skills, then demonstrate knowledge and apply lessons. Each student will have the opportunity to start and operate their own business. To encourage Student Recruitment, Retention, and Educational Equity, the program will development mentorships (graduates are mentors for current students and share personal experiences with aspiring students); creative and innovative outreach efforts (NH engagement videos and events) and relationship building/support for NH/UR groups build trust and knowledge and improve educational equity.EVALUATION:The evaluation will have both formative and summative components. For the formative evaluation (FE), the project will use principles of the utilization-focused evaluation framework developed by Michael Patton to help inform and improve program implementation. Upon grant approval, the evaluator will meet with the project leaders to validate evaluation questions and to set up a system to track progress. Data collection to measure demographics, evaluate skills (through assignments and rubrics), and determine outcomes will be integrated.The evaluation will also use evaluation principles developed by the Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment of the University of Illinois College of Education. Culturally Responsive Evaluation (CRE) seeks to identify the project's impacts on the served community. It focuses on gaining information from consumers, stakeholders, project staff, and decision makers.The FE will address the research questions: Have scheduled activities been carried out as planned? What issues have been encountered? What adjustments (if any) are indicated by evaluation findings? Have these adjustments been made and to what effect?Information for the FE will be obtained through on-site visits, interviews with project staff, review of activities, and analysis of participant and grant data. At the end of each year, quantifiable and observable evidence will be collected and analyzed to determine whether activities achieved the intended outcomes as stated in the grant objectives and Logic Model and if not, what modifications can improve success. The evaluator will meet with project staff at least semi-annually to discuss progress and assist in formulating corrective action if needed.The summative evaluation will examine the longer-term results of the project as it relates to the project goals. Interviews with and surveys from students, stakeholders, and staff that represent activities across the state will be conducted. Qualitative data will be analyzed and a final summative evaluation report will be completed within 30 days of the end of the project to evaluate the efficacy of the program and provide recommendations.