The Kohala Center receives funding from NIFA to support Native Hawaiian farmers

The Kohala Center receives funding from NIFA to support Native Hawaiian farmers

Grant funds will support new and beginning farmers and ranchers to generate food abundance

WAIMEA, Hawaiʻi Island, Hawaiʻi (December 13, 2024)—The Kohala Center today announced that it received a grant award totaling $749,298 that will support the Native Hawaiian community through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP). The grant will help to support Native Hawaiian new and beginning farmers and ranchers to integrate indigenous forest-agriculture and western conservation into their agricultural systems. 

Through its “Hana Mahiʻai: Preparing the Ground for Beginning Native Farmers and Rachers to (Re)Generate Food Abundance” initiative, The Kohala Center will provide training, technical assistance, and resources to new and beginning Native Hawaiian farmers and ranchers to reclaim agency over feeding Hawaiʻi Island’s diverse community. “This is a forest-food-community raising project designed and implemented by Native Hawaiians for more Native Hawaiians in rural communities to exercise food and water sovereignty,” shares President and C.E.O, Cheryl Kaʻuhane Lupenui.  The Center’s integrated approach will address the BFRDP’s priorities of forest management, climate-smart farming and livestock practices, natural resource management and planning, and resources/referrals that improve biodiversity, soils, lands, watersheds and ecosystems services. 

Traditionally, Hawaiʻi’s agricultural system sustained 100% of its land and people. Now, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are the most underrepresented group of Hawaiʻi’s food producers (less than 9%), and Hawaiʻi imports more than 80% of food. In response, The Kohala Center aims to increase place-based food production that supports viable agricultural livelihoods, and provide place-based, culturally-relevant plants and processes to participants. 

The purpose of the NIFA’s BFRDP is to provide education, mentoring, and technical assistance to help underserved, veteran, and beginning farmers and rachers own and operate successful farms. These investments also help provide equitable participation in USDA agricultural programs.

About The Kohala Center
Founded in the year 2000, The Kohala Center (kohalacenter.org) is an independent, community-based center focused on research, education, and ʻāina stewardship for healthier ecosystems. We are a community of practitioners with Kohala at our center, working to strengthen ʻāina relationships. We return ancestral knowledge and research into daily practice. We envision a state of pono indicated by regenerating forests, food, and coastal ecosystems of Hawaiʻi. 

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PHOTOGRAPHS
Available for download at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YJcM_P7J47EnL1UxbWvh1sUpu9kp6c5_?usp=sharing

[KohalaCenter_NIFA_BFRDP__HanaMahiai_clearing.jpg] Kaʻiana Runnels, mahiʻāina supervisor at The Kohala Center, clears weeds in preparation for planting at a farm in Puʻu Kapu, Waimea.
Photo credit: The Kohala Center

[KohalaCenter_NIFA_BFRDP_HanaMahiai_windbreak.jpg] Native tree and shrub species, including koaiʻe (Acacia koaia) and ʻaʻaliʻi (Dodonaea viscosa), were planted as a windbreak to protect a farm in Puʻu Kapu, Waimea. The windbreak will serve to protect future plantings of food crops.
Photo credit: The Kohala Center

[KohalaCenter_NIFA_BFRDP_HanaMahiai_awa.jpg] North Hawaiʻi community members gather to process ʻawa, a traditional Hawaiian agricultural crop, at a Lā Hana workday hosted by The Kohala Center.
Photo credit: The Kohala Center