Overview
Efforts in Indigenous Crop Innovation aim to unlock the full potential of traditional Pacific crops—such as breadfruit, taro, sugarcane, and banana—through applied research, community partnership, and place-based innovation. These underutilized species offer vital contributions to food security, climate resilience, and cultural continuity, yet remain largely overlooked by conventional agricultural research systems. Our work leverages indigenous knowledge and contemporary science to identify elite varieties for specific contexts, improving propagation and cultivation methods, and developing value-added uses through collaborative R&D. By bridging Indigenous knowledge with scientific inquiry, we’re working to return these crops to the center of resilient, regenerative food systems across the Islands.
Projects
Developed and supported an experimental certified kitchen to support the growth of the nascent 'ulu (breadfruit) industry, which has critically supported the ongoing development of the .
Developed and maintained tissue culture protocol to alleviate the propagation bottleneck of breadfruit and distributed 20,000 trees over the past 8 years, including donating 1,000 trees to local schools and other non-profits
Currently facilitating industry-sponsored graduate research to address critical needs in local agricultural sectors such as heirloom sugarcane and cacao.
Developing community-based industries in rural locations employing low-tech, food-safe processing technologies.
Partnership with Propagate Ventures to calibrate economic forecast models of tropical agroforestry crops, including breadfruit, taro, mamaki, heirloom bananas, and others.