Farmers, educators, agricultural experts and novices alike Tuesday in Kailua-Kona delved into the multitude of challenges and opportunities facing Hawaii’s agricultural industry. Farmers, educators, agricultural experts and novices alike Tuesday in Kailua-Kona delved into the multitude of challenges and opportunities
Farmers, educators, agricultural experts and novices alike Tuesday in Kailua-Kona delved into the multitude of challenges and opportunities facing Hawaii’s agricultural industry.
Getting youth involved earlier and ridding stigmas about being a farmer, building consumer awareness and community collaboration, educating young and old, and reducing government regulation and increasing its efficiency were among the challenges, opportunities and solutions people identified during the West Hawaii Sustainable Agriculture Skill Panel Forum.
The daylong forum was aimed at identifying future agricultural workforce needs and ways to make the industry more sustainable in Hawaii, said Russell Kokubun, state Department of Agriculture chairman. It focused on innovation and sustainability; education and training; infrastructure; distribution; and recruitment and retention of agricultural workers.
Kokubun pointed to a workforce lacking educational and background diversity and too much reliance on imported goods, food and fuel as examples of issues facing successful a Hawaii-based agricultural industry.
“The combination of the two means we need to do a better job in order to become more self-sustaining,” he said. “This forum is for the future of our agricultural industry.”
Dozens of West Hawaii residents spent the day taking part in brainstorming sessions and panel discussions and perusing informational displays at King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel. The forum, which has been held twice on Oahu and once in East Hawaii, is a partnership between an array of state, Hawaii County, private and educational entities to encourage growth in the agricultural industry.
Hawaii’s agricultural workforce was estimated in July at 12,200 people — approximately 1.9 percent of the state’s 630,000-plus person labor force, according to Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Average hourly pay was just under $15.
The Big Island’s agricultural labor force in 2010 was estimated at 1,983 — down from 2,303 five years prior, according to the department. Average hourly earnings ranged from $11.55 to $14.54.
Creating a local workforce to move the industry into the future will be important and require some changes academically, forum participants said. That includes training teachers, getting students interested in agriculture earlier and establishing high school credit-earning projects, among other ideas.
“Students need to be exposed a little earlier, because if they’re not exposed how can we ask what they want to learn about and do in the future,” said Andrea Kawabata, University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources Kona extension agent. “If they’re exposed to things early on, then at least by middle school or high school they might have an idea of what they want to learn prior to going into college.”
Results from the forum will be combined with feedback already gathered on Oahu and in East Hawaii and posted on the state Workforce Development Council’s website at sesphawaii.com/agriculture.cfm.
