{"id":211119,"date":"2025-02-23T08:00:26","date_gmt":"2025-02-23T18:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=211119"},"modified":"2025-02-24T16:42:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T02:42:52","slug":"hawaii-cc-korean-natural-farming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/02\/23\/hawaii-cc-korean-natural-farming\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing a greener future: Hawai\u02bbi CC<\/abbr> teaches Korean natural farming"},"content":{"rendered":"
Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
\"People
(from left) Bo Williams, Lew Nakamura, Lacie Nobriga, Jonathan Crouch chop banana flowers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Hawaiʻi<\/span> Community College is making a lasting impact on sustainable agriculture in Hawaiʻi<\/span> through its pioneering use of Korean natural farming (KNF<\/abbr>).<\/p>\n[vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https:\/\/youtube.com\/shorts\/8VKt_n3uNgo” el_aspect=”916″ align=”right” el_id=”wrap-video-right”][vc_column_text]\n

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\"Person
Olena Hovey collects kukui leaves from the Hawaiʻi<\/span> CC<\/abbr> farm to make into fermented plant juice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Since 2016, the college\u2019s agriculture program has trained students in KNF<\/abbr> techniques, producing nearly 100 graduates, some of whom are now actively revitalizing Hawaiʻi<\/span>\u2019s farmlands with environmentally friendly methods.<\/p>\n

At the college\u2019s Panaʻewa<\/span> farm lot, students learn to apply KNF<\/abbr> principles to cultivate crops such as \u2018uala (sweet potatoes), pineapples, and kalo (taro) without synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. This method harnesses Indigenous microorganisms and fermented plant-based biostimulants to enrich soil naturally\u2014a crucial approach for restoring lands depleted by plantation-era farming.<\/p>\n

“Korean Natural Farming is great for reviving unproductive soil, and we\u2019ve seen remarkable results,” said Lew Nakamura, assistant professor of agriculture. “Students are often surprised by how easy and cost-effective it is to create these inputs. A little goes a long way, but patience is key\u2014it can take several years to fully restore soil conditions.”<\/p>\n

Students in Nakamura\u2019s Agriculture 250 Sustainable Crop Production class gain hands-on experience making fermented plant juices from banana flowers, kukui leaves and ʻuala leaves. After about a week of fermentation, these natural fertilizers are combined with lactic acid bacteria and water to create beneficial microorganisms that restore soil health.<\/p>\n

“Korean natural farming has impacted my understanding of sustainable farming here in Hawaiʻi<\/span>,” said David Marquis, an agriculture student. “It has taught me ways to stay away from man-made chemicals, and use natural materials found locally.”<\/p>\n

Nakamura said organic Korean farming techniques have been around for decades.<\/p>\n

“I believe retired 东精影业<\/abbr> M\u0101noa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience animal extension agent Mike DuPont was the first to introduce KNF<\/abbr> to Hawaiʻi<\/span>, and he inspired me to incorporate it into our program,” he said.<\/p>\n

The college also plans to implement KNF<\/abbr> practices in future pig pens to promote sustainable livestock management. With graduates already applying KNF<\/abbr> methods in the field, Hawaiʻi<\/span> CC<\/abbr> is leading the way in equipping the next generation of farmers with sustainable, regenerative agriculture techniques.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_masonry_media_grid element_width=”2″ css=”” grid_id=”vc_gid:1740173584845-d8743006-f372-9″ include=”211129,211126,211128,211124,211125,211130″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hawaiʻi<\/span> CC<\/abbr> graduates are helping to revitalize farmlands using environmentally friendly methods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,12],"tags":[222,61,73,71,56],"class_list":["post-211119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","category-video","tag-agriculture","tag-hawaii-community-college","tag-sustainability","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211119"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211235,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211119\/revisions\/211235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}