Issue 233   |   October 13, 2015   |   Archive

News & Events

Crop Disaster? Assistance Program!

CTAHR is partnering with USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) to offer workshops across the state on the benefits and requirements of the basic NAP coverage and the NAP Buy-Up option for beginning, minority, and limited-resource producers. The Non-Insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) helps farmers and ranchers deal with natural disasters. CTAHR is offering informational meetings on four major islands: on Kaua‘i on Fri., October 16, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Kaua‘i CC OCET Room 105; in Kona on Mon., October 19, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Kona CES Conference Room (limited seating); in Waimea, Hawai‘i, on Wed., October 21, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Waimea Civic Center Conference Room (limited seating); on Maui on Wed., October 28, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Kula Community Center; on O‘ahu on Thurs., October 29, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Pearl City Urban Garden Center (limited seating); and in Hilo on Tues., November 3, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Komohana Research and Extension Center Conference Room. To preregister for Kaua‘i, Maui, O‘ahu, or Hilo, contact Stuart Nakamoto at snakamo@hawaii.edu or 956-8125; for Kona, email Gina at ginab@hawaii.edu or call 322-4892; for Waimea, email Perci at proque@hawaii.edu or call 887-6183.

Open Door With the Dean, October 14

The Dean will be available again for open-door time with CTAHR faculty and staff on Wednesday, October 14, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., in Gilmore 202. This is time she sets aside each month to listen and dialogue with interested faculty and staff on issues of their choosing. Please sign up in advance for one-on-one meetings to take place during this time period by contacting Wimmie Wong Lui at 956-8234 or wongluiw@ctahr.hawaii.edu. Meetings will be confirmed on a first-come, first-served basis. Should these times change due to unforeseen circumstances, you will be informed.

Make an Impact!

There will be a special CTAHR seminar on “Impact Reporting: Why It Matters and How to Do It Well” by Sarah Lupis, assistant director of the Western Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors, on Thursday, October 22, at 1:30 p.m. in Gilmore 212. In her position at Colorado State University, Sarah Lupis both writes and reviews numerous impact reports on research and Extension projects, and she has developed an excellent seminar/workshop on how to do good impact reporting. All are welcome to attend!

Grants & Awards

Poster Children

Bishnu Prasad Bhandari (PEPS) and Kauahi Perez (TPSS) (pictured), along with Roberto Rodriguez III (MBBE), presented posters of their research at the 15th Annual Landscape Industry of Hawaii Green Industry Conference and Trade Show on October 8. Kauahi’s poster on “Testing the Utility of Intergenic Spacer Regions to Identify Distinct Plumeria Taxa” and Bishnu’s poster on “Hosts and Management of Lobate Lac Scale, Paratachardina pseudolobata Kundo and Gullan, in Hawaii’s Urban Landscape” were voted by conference attendees as the best posters! They will be featured in the next issue of Hawaii Landscape Magazine. Roberto’s poster was entitled “Tracking the Performance of Herbicide Ballistic Technology (HBT) for Improved Invasive Species Management.” Also at the Green Industry Conference and Trade Show was TPSS alumnus and newly hired research support Orville Baldos, who spoke on an important project he and Joe DeFrank (also TPSS) are involved, in growing native plants along highway rights-of-way.

Star Teachers

There’s still time to nominate an outstanding CTAHR instructional faculty for a 2016 UH Excellence in Teaching Award, but you’d better hurry—the deadline is less than a is a week away: Monday, October 19! If you’ve got a moment (okay, 5 minutes, max), nominate an exceptional CTAHR teacher here. Teaching awards will be made in the following categories: Board of Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching, Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and Chancellor’s Citation for Meritorious Teaching. Any full-time faculty member with instructional responsibilities and a record of outstanding teaching at UH during the last three years is eligible, though previous recipients of Board of Regents awards are not eligible for the same award. The faculty member selected by the college to be considered for the UH award will also be eligible to receive CTAHR’s Excellence in Teaching Award, which will be presented at CTAHR’s upcoming annual Awards Banquet on May 6, like Jonathan Deenik (TPSS), who won both that award and the Citation for Meritorious Teaching last year!

Tap the Piggy Bank

The National Pork Board has an RFP and a Co-Funding RFP with the National Pork Board and Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Disease (CEEZAD) now available. The deadline for submission is Tuesday, November 17, at 5:00 p.m. CST. The National Pork Board is soliciting research proposals dealing with the following categories: ANIMAL SCIENCE – Animal Science, Swine Nutrition; ANIMAL WELFARE – Animal Welfare; PORK SAFETY – Post-Harvest; PORK QUALITY – Pork Quality; PUBLIC HEALTH – Antibiotic Use/Resistance*, Influenza, MRSA, and Other Zoonotics; PUBLIC HEALTH – Worker Health & Safety; SWINE HEALTH – General Swine Disease; and SUSTAINABILITY – Manure, Water, and Other. Apply for your pork funding today!

Spotlight on Our Community

Maui Meaningful

Maui was the site of the Twelfth Annual Meaningful Experience for 21 CTAHR students and staff. Arriving, they first headed for Haleakala to learn about the region’s biodiversity, native birds and plants, and conservation/ecological restoration efforts. Then they visited Ag Incubator client Maui Gold Pineapple, where they measured the factors in determining when a pineapple is ready for sale: translucency, acidity, and sweetness. The last activity of the day was team-building activities to foster interpersonal, communication, problem-solving, and leadership skills, led by academic advisor Jennifer Custodio. The next morning, the group embarked on their main adventure of the day: heading out to the red dirt fields of Lahaina for an in-the-field exploration of Maui’s ag industry. They talked with a cacao farmer working on a line of premium chocolates and contributed by planting 21 cacao trees and two ‘ulu trees on the premises. After this labor-intensive work, everyone lunched and shopped for Maui omiyage before heading home. Thanks go to Darren Strand and Maui Gold Pineapple, to James Kimo Simpliciano for coordinating the farm visit and to Gunars Valkirs for hosting the group on his cacao farm. Gratitude also to ASAO for supporting the students’ trip to Maui and to the students who participated and made this experience meaningful!

Ho‘olaule‘a Kalo

Moloka‘i’s Taro Field Day, which is organized by Extension agent Alton Arakaki and other Moloka‘i Extension staff, is featured in an article in the Molokai Dispatch. The annual Field Day gives the community a chance to learn about and help preserve historic taro species, as well as taste-test poi and kulolo made from varieties grown at the UH Maui Community College Farm in Ho‘olehua. Attendees could also harvest huli from their favorite varieties to grow at home. The Queen’s Challenge was also included in the Field Day. It is held annually in honor of Queen Emma Kalanikaumakaamano Kaleleonalani Na‘ea Rooke, who valued and wrote on Hawaiian taro varieties and propagation. Extension agent Glenn Teves’s son Ioane Teves, of Ho‘olehua, won first and second place for piko ‘ula‘ula corms of four and over three pounds with a mix of conventional fertilizer and organic inputs! Extension agent Alton Arakaki, quoted in the article, has calculated that at the height of production, an estimated 500,000 people throughout Hawai‘i were each eating a seven- to nine-pound kalo plant every day! The Extension service also joined with local nonprofit Sust‘ainable Moloka‘i to sponsor the Kalo Cooking Contest, with 14 ‘ono entries, including chocolate-dipped kalo chips!

Desmond Ogata, 30 Years

Desmond Ogata (ADSC) has reached an important milestone in CTAHR service: he’s been working at the college for thirty years! But that’s not the extent of his association with CTAHR: he’s an alumnus, too, with an MS in Plant Pathology and a specialization in nematodes. Desmond does research support at the Agricultural Diagnostic Services Center and serves as the director of the UH Seed Lab. He’s published on banana bunchy top virus and ‘ohi‘a rust, along with many other problematic plant pests. The college is the better for his presence, and we hope he sticks around another thirty years!

Calabash

Kings of Keo

Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs Charly Kinoshita is featured in a UH News Story…but not for his work with the college. Rather, it’s his wild & crazy days as a member of the Kappa Epsilon Theta (Keo) fraternity at UH that are pictured—literally—in this discussion of an important digitization project that Hamilton Library has completed. All of UH’s Ka Palapala yearbooks are now available online, up through the last year they were published, 1968. And it’s the 1968 book that shows Charly and his fraternity brothers mugging for the camera—Charly’s the one with a fellow brother’s legs in his lap, garbed in what looks like a Mexican serape!

Help our community to keep in touch! Please send news items -- awards, grants, special projects, special people -- and pictures to Frederika Bain at ctahrnotes@ctahr.hawaii.edu. Also refer to the submission information and guidelines.

CTAHR faculty and staff can always check for the latest new funding opportunities.

Do you have an upcoming event that you'd like to promote? CTAHR faculty and staff can post events to the CTAHR website's calendar.

All CTAHR Notes readers can browse the calendar to learn more about the college's activities.