Project Objectives:

1) To produce several newsletters for fact sheets on information systems and/or crop management practices useful for Hawaii.

2) To develop a hypertext version of the fertilizer advice and consultation system manual.

3) Continued development and strengthening of AGNET-Hawaii.

4) Training of CES county office personnel and clientele groups to use AGNET-Hawaii and other systems.

5) Training of county office personnel to utilize crop management information systems such as FACS and ADAP's on-farm manual -- electronic edition.

6) Measure results of training and usefulness of products by questionnaires or evaluations.

ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR EXTENSION DELIVERY IN HAWAII
Campbell S, Iwata R, Bittenbender H

Project Objectives:

1) A free, electronic telecommunication network dedicated to enhancing productive agricultural and economic transitions in rural Hawaii will be developed.

2) Convenient and free access for extension faculty in every extension office in the state to a computer with access to a statewide agriculturally-oriented communications network and the internet.

3) Extension faculty will have acquired the skills to actively participate in the use of a statewide agriculture electronic communication network.

4) The majority of extension faculty will have acquired the skills to tap the resources of the internet, including e-mail, and the telnet and FTP protocols. Knowledge of mosaic, gopher, WAIS, and WWW client use will be taught.

5) Extension faculty will use electronic telecommunication to participate in CES program planning, and delivery, with interactions among agriculture and non-agriculture extension faculty as appropriate.

6) Extension, research, and instructional faculty in rural areas will be able to use electronic telecommunication for academic advising, planning research, or for dissemination of research results or marketing information.

DEVELOPMENT OF PAPAYA
Chia C

Project Objectives:

Coordinate activities related to needs of papaya growers.

DEVELOPMENT OF BANANA INDUSTRY IN HAWAII
Chia C

Project Objectives:

Coordinate activities related to needs of banana industry.

DEVELOPMENT OF MISCELLANEOUS FRUIT CROPS IN HAWAII
Chia C

Project Objectives:

Collect and disseminate information on minor fruit crops for agricultural diversification.

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER TO SUPPORT SUSTAINABLE FARMING SYSTEMS IN HAWAII
DeFrank J.

Project Objectives:

1) To increase the number of orchard acres protected with living ground covers by providing information on the use of herbicides in producing and establishing orchard ground covers in an electronic format for access over the internet. The information will be used by growers to improve erosion control and reduce non-point source pollution.

2) To provide an alternative to conventional bare ground cultivation for growers by conducting field demonstrations illustrating the use of living sods in vegetable crop production and the uses of orchard ground covers in papaya. The adoption of these techniques will allow production of high value vegetable and orchard crops while reducing herbicide use and reducing polluted runoff.

3) To produce four new informational units on weed control for sustainable cropping systems for vegetable, ornamental, orchard and forest plantings. The use of the techniques developed will provide farmers with means of producing crops in Hawaii while conforming to regulatory statues which will require a mitigation of non-point source pollution.

Accomplishments:

Several field day and slide lectures were presented in this reporting period to highlight the use of ground covers in orchard and row crop production. Two field days were conducted to show farmers and agents how a chemically stunted sod of grass can be grown in a polyculture with high value horticultural crops. The purpose of this approach to crop production is identify best management practices that Hawaii's farmers can use to be in compliance with federal laws dealing with non-point source pollution. I have also made several presentations to orchid grower organization on the use of herbicides for weed control in potted plants for export. These updates serve as progress reports for my work on getting new chemical tools for weed control in these high value crops.

IMPROVED STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT FOR COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURAL PRODUCERS
Fleming K, Halloran J, Nakamoto S

Project Objectives:

The objective of this project is to improve the strategic management abilities of Hawaii's commercial agricultural producers. The means to achieving this goal will be the state-wide implementation of:

1) Finpack, a set of integrated financial management computer programs which were designed over the past decade by the center for farm financial management (department of Agricultural & Applied Economics, University of Minnesota) and have been implemented on over 100,000 farms in 40 states.

2) Planetor, a computer program which is currently being developed by the center, with funding and overall direction from a national LISA grant, and is designed to enable producers to develop strategies which incorporate the financial needs of producers and the broader environmental concerns.

VEGETABLE PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT ON FARMERS' FARM (003)
Fukuda S

Project Objectives:

1) Farm visits especially to farmers that request production assistance.

2) On-farm trials to be implemented to help determine best alternative or solution to production problem.

3) Develop "ball park" type information on production difficulties so specialists can confirm and publish information.

4) Farm visits serve as the agents primary means of learning about the farmers' practice, field conditions, crop requirements, etc.

5) To maintain confidence of farmers with CTAHR, UH and State.

Accomplishments:

Approximately 350 farm visits were made. A significant number of visits were made to new farms in the Mililani and Waialua areas. There may be as many as as 80 new full and part-time farms in these areas with about 300 acres to deal with. Most visits with new farmers tend to deal with basic and general concerns such as markets and marketing, post harvest handling, soil management, irrigation and irrigation supply materials, crop management (cultural) and pest management, "support businesses" such as seed sources, farm loan, farm organizations, alternatives in obtaining information, etc. Many of these clients will continue to need individualized visitations by an agent. The remainder of the farm visits were basically used to interact with farmers on alternative production decisions. Hopefully, the project impacted individuals significantly and added positively to maintain the confidence of the farmers with CTAHR, the University of Hawaii state sponsored programs. We need to maintain a project like this to attend to the "new" farmers.

LOW INPUT SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE (LISA) VEGETABLES (003)
Fukuda S

Project Objectives:

1) Identify possible LISA vegetable crops.

2) Maintain planting stock to initiate experimental demonstration.

3) Test plant certain vegetable to learn more about its culture.

4) Monitor and characterize low input characters for each vegetable.

5) Explore possibilities of processing certain LISA vegetable crops.

Accomplishments:

Have collect and screened 2 more Dioscorea yam varieties. These varieties were all highly tolerant to insect and disease attack locally. Fertility and irrigation trials are planned next.

AGRICULTURAL TRAINING FOR FARMING ENTERPRISE -- FROM PRODUCTION TO MARKETING
Fukuda S, Hamasaki R, Wong M, Mersino E, Sato D, Takemoto M

Project Objectives:

To develop, coordinate and deliver an agricultural classroom training program (basic curriculum in section D) for the targeted clientele (dislocated sugar workers, part-time workers, part-time farmers, immigrant farmers, etc.) To provide basic farming principles through classroom setting via CTAHR/HITAHR expertise. To develop classroom handouts and other educational materials relating to Oahu's diverse agriculture for distribution in class.

Accomplishments:

These videos have been shown on the "CTAHR Show" (Olelo) television program. The videos have been signed out by many individuals and organizations and the information contained on entomology, plant pathology, fertilizers, etc must have had an impact on reducing the number of calls to the county agent's office. These videos are available in all county offices for anyone in the state to borrow.

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER - FOOD PROCESSING
Hodgson A, Nakamura-Tengan L, Ohama M, Mahilum P

Project Objectives:

Clientele/commercial food processing industry, extension faculty, and other interested parties will be made aware and updated in current developments and trends in food science and technology.

Accomplishments:

Certification courses were conducted to enable certain sectors of the food industry to comply with federal regulations. The Better Process Control School was given in Samoa. Plans to hold international courses were shelved due to administration changes in the US Food & Drug Administration in Washington, DC. The HACCP certification course was conducted both for the seafood and meat & poultry industries. Not all companies who were contacted by the federal inspectors opted to attend the certification courses when they were offered. About 80 professionals were certified.

Last year, Food Technology Extension program identified the need for the prerequisite programs to HACCP. During this FY00, short courses focused on these prerequisite programs including Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Recall, Preventive Maintenance, Education and Training, and Sanitation. A new national certification course on Seafood Sanitation Control Procedures was initiated for the seafood industry. There are plans to introduce a Seafood GMP course. About 150 professionals attended these courses.

County agents continued to educate other groups, from homemakers to young teens to caregivers, about safe food handling practices. A Food Safety phone line was established to field consumer calls.