#Hawaii Board of Agriculture

The Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture is accepting applications for the Compost Reimbursement Program for Fiscal Year 2025, which may reimburse agricultural producers for the cost of purchasing compost, including transportation costs.

Illegal and harmful marine aquarium species are being set loose on Hawai‘i’s reefs, according to the state departments of Agriculture and Land and Natural Resources. And, the threat of non-native species to nearshore ecosystems has led to the launch of the “Don’t Let It Loose” campaign.

Record funding for biosecurity measures approved by the state legislature this year will expand the state’s efforts to stop the spread of invasive species such as little fire ants, the coconut rhinoceros beetle and coqui frogs, the Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture (HDOA) announced Monday.

The Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture (HDOA) has awarded grants for community-based management of coconut rhinoceros beetles (CRB) on O‘ahu, and to support green waste management on the islands of Kaua‘i, Maui, and O‘ahu. Awards for the two grant programs totaled about $293,000.

Honolulu police officers came across a live, non-venomous ball python in a Waipahu home on Saturday morning, while conducting a wellness check for a man who passed away, according to the Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture.

Due to the recent highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) detections in livestock on the mainland, the Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture (HDOA) has placed a restriction on the transport of cattle from premises where HPAI has infected cattle. Currently, HPAI has been detected in dairy cattle in Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Idaho, Ohio and Michigan; however, the restriction will be placed on any future areas where HPAI-infected cattle are found. No infected cattle have been detected in Hawai‘i.

The Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture is reminding travelers attending the Merrie Monarch Festival this week that quarantine restrictions remain on the transport of ʻōhiʻa from Hawaiʻi Island due to the fungal plant disease, rapid ʻōhiʻa death, which is devastating to native forests. The Merrie Monarch Festival begins in Hilo on March 31 and ends April 6.

The Hawai’i Department of Agriculture Plant Industry Division is accepting applications for the Compost Reimbursement Program for Fiscal Year 2024, which may reimburse agricultural producers for the cost of purchasing compost, including transportation costs.

The Hawaiʻi Food Basket estimates that every dollar spent in the DA BUX Double-Up program contributes $2.10 to the local economy.

Mahi Pono will lease 15 acres of its West Maui agricultural land to GoFarm Hawai‘i for its successful statewide farmer-development training program aimed at increasing the state’s agricultural workforce.

The Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture has opened a grant program to support the establishment and expansion of food hubs in Hawai‘i. Proposals for the Food Hub Pilot Program are now being accepted for grants between $50,000 and $250,000 aimed at increasing the capacity of food hubs, which are centrally located facilities where food products may be aggregated, stored, processed, and marketed.

A multi-agency “Stop the Ant” campaign will be underway in Hawaiʻi in October to increase awareness about the importance of early detection to prevent and control the spread of the invasive little fire ant.

The Hawai`i Department of Agriculture is now accepting proposals for the Grow Hawai`i Agriculture Initiative 2021, an initiative to quickly scale up commercial agricultural production including the production of value-added products with the goal to increase the contribution of agriculture to the state’s gross domestic product.

The state was awarded $430,600 through a federal block grant program to help strengthen the state’s specialty crop industry. The Hawai`i Department of Agriculture has approved 10 project proposals under the US Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, which aims to enhance the competitiveness of Hawai`i-grown specialty crops in local, domestic and international markets.

The Hawaiʻi Board of Agriculture approved the expansion of coffee quarantine areas to include the islands of Oʻahu and Lānaʻi due to the coffee leaf rust, a fungus that threatens Hawaiʻi’s important coffee industry.

The Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture is accepting applications for the “Micro-Grants for Food Security Program,” which provides support for small-scale gardening, herding and livestock operations to help produce food in areas where people don’t have enough to eat.

The Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture is hosting a free Specialty Crop Block Grant Program workshop at the HDOA Maui Conference Room (635 Mua St.) on Jan. 16. from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Gov. David Ige recently signed new rules for the state’s rabies quarantine program, which prevents rabies from being introduced into Hawaiʻi.

The Hawai’i Department of Agriculture has announced the temporary restoration of 22 plant quarantine inspector positions that were slated to be eliminated as part of the state’s effort to close a nearly $900 million budget shortfall.  In August, 50 of the state’s 83 agricultural inspectors were issued Reduction-In-Force notices.  The revision will allow the department […]

Farmers have until today (Thursday, May 28, 2009) to submit a survey that could influence future stream flows in east Maui.  The Maui County Farm Bureau began distributing the survey several months ago in the hopes of obtaining information on water usage and needs.  The information from the survey will help the farm bureau in […]