{"id":108213,"date":"2019-12-20T13:29:35","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T23:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=108213"},"modified":"2019-12-20T13:29:35","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T23:29:35","slug":"ctahr-teves-papaya-philosophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2019\/12\/20\/ctahr-teves-papaya-philosophy\/","title":{"rendered":"Moloka\u2018i farmers urged to ‘think like a papaya’"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>

\"close<\/p>\n

The University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa\u2019s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources<\/a> (CTAHR<\/abbr>) Molokaʻi<\/span> Extension team assists the community in increasing their papaya market success and fosters Native Hawaiian farms with a creative philosophy: “Think like a papaya.”<\/p>\n

Extension Agent Glenn Teves<\/strong> offers this unlikely advice to help farmers succeed on Molokaʻi<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"Glenn
Glenn Teves<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On a practical level, he means farmers should figure out what they would want if they were papaya plants in order to help their trees flourish in the hot, dry, sometimes inhospitable Hoʻolehua<\/span> region.<\/p>\n

Fellow Agent Jennifer Hawkins<\/strong> is also helping Molokaʻi<\/span> organic papaya producers to implement best management practices for increased market success. This includes growing more varieties of organic papaya since Molokaʻi<\/span> doesn\u2019t have any diseases that could harm the papaya crops.<\/p>\n

Teves’ recommendation reflects a larger holistic philosophy of farming—being at one with the plants and the ʻāina<\/span>. It is a sense of farming that involves working with the crops, the soil, the precipitation and the climate.<\/p>\n

Working with the state is part of the web of interdependence between the communities and the farmers. Teves and Hawkins serve in the Beginning Farmer<\/a> program which coordinates with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to foster new Native Hawaiian farm families through a hands-on, experiential agriculture education program.<\/p>\n

This sense of cooperation is what makes extension work on Molokaʻi<\/span> unique, not only from the Mainland, but also from other islands, Teves believes.<\/p>\n

Read the full story and more about CTAHR<\/abbr>\u2019s collaborations statewide in their quarterly impact report.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CTAHR<\/abbr>\u2019s Extension team in Molokaʻi<\/span> encourages the idea of thinking like a papaya in order to help the papaya crops flourish in dry regions and foster new farm families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[222,212,9],"class_list":["post-108213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-agriculture","tag-college-of-tropical-agriculture-and-human-resilience","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t