Ag Stakeholders Meeting Planned at Kēōkea Homestead

Upcountry Maui is the site of a trio of holiday-season Keokea Homestead Open Market events featuring fresh produce, crafts, food and entertainment. Photo courtesy: Department of Hawaiian Home Lands .

By Maui Now Staff

The community is invited to an ag stakeholders meeting this Saturday, March 7, at the Kēōkea homestead.

The meeting will be hosted by the Kēōkea Homestead Farm Lots Association and will focus on homestead water issues.

Topics of discussion will include: an ag water allotment and ag water rates for Kēōkea farmers, and extension of the non-potable ag waterline to Kēōkea.

The meeting will start at 1 p.m. at the Kēōkea Marketplace, located at Mile Marker 16.9 of the Kula Highway at Kaʻamana Street, a quarter-mile past Grandma’s Coffee House.

The association has invited the following individuals to attend and contribute to the discussion: Julie-Ann Cachola of Oʻahu, planner with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands’ Planning Office and DHHL liaison for Maui homesteaders; Napua Canto, Maui commissioner with the Hawaiian Homes Commission; Mona Kapaku, DHHL Maui homestead district operations manager; lawyer Teya Penniman with the Hawaiʻi Agricultural Mediation Program, who will facilitate discussion; and Phyllis Robinson, Haleakalā Chapter president of Hawaiʻi Farmers Union United.

The agenda will feature a presentation by Kēōkea association president Guy Kiaha Jr. on the group’s Upcountry homestead; a message from Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard; and an update from association members’ meeting last week with Maui Department of Water Supply director Dave Taylor and Gladys Baisa, chairwoman of the Maui County Council Water Resources Committee.

Open discussion on the issues will follow.

Kēōkea Homestead Farm Lots Association is a non-profit organization representing Maui’s only agricultural homestead, encompassing 66 two-acre lots dedicated to sustainable, subsistence farming.