{"id":220232,"date":"2025-08-14T11:06:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T21:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=220232"},"modified":"2025-08-14T11:06:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T21:06:37","slug":"hawai%ca%bbi-china-ag-partnerships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/08\/14\/hawai%ca%bbi-china-ag-partnerships\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawai\u02bbi, China explore new agricultural partnerships"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"group
Shakas up from the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> trade delegation in Hainan, China.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From a historic lamp to fresh Kona coffee, the ties between Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and China were rekindled during a recent trade mission to the provinces of Guangdong and Hainan. The University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Mānoa\u2019s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience<\/a> (CTAHR<\/abbr>) played a key role in the one-week visit, which was led by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, along with several state lawmakers, to strengthen agricultural and economic bonds.<\/p>\n

Kevin Olival, CTAHR<\/abbr> associate dean for research, noted that “one of the overall missions of the trip was to support economic development, tourism and educational opportunities between the State of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and these provinces in China.”<\/p>\n

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A gift bag from Olival for Dr. Li Jihua, Vice President of Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Local coffee farmer Ralph Gaston led Hawaiian coffee tasting events in each province, offering a hands-on way to showcase local products and the university’s research in the field.<\/p>\n

Similar challenges, new ideas<\/h2>\n

Olival returned with several new ideas for collaborations with Chinese agricultural schools. He noted that Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and Hainan province face similar challenges.<\/p>\n

“They deal with some of the same problems we do,” Olival said. “They even have developed bio-control for insect pests that are destroying coconut trees—analogous to Â鶹´«Ã½\u2019s<\/span> problem with coconut rhinoceros beetles. So I think there are a number of potential research collaborations, in addition to opportunities to expand student and faculty exchanges.”<\/p>\n

A shared history<\/h2>\n

The group also explored Chinese history, including a visit to the museum at Sun Yat Sen\u2019s home. A lamp that he had brought back with him from Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> was on display, which served as a poignant reminder of the deep ties between the two regions.<\/p>\n

“Seeing an object that he had carried with him from Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> back to China helped me understand the deep ties between our islands and China,” Olival said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CTAHR<\/abbr> played a key role in the one-week visit, which was led by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, along with several state lawmakers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[222,212,9],"class_list":["post-220232","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":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220232","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=220232"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220247,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220232\/revisions\/220247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}