{"id":221794,"date":"2025-09-11T14:06:27","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T00:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=221794"},"modified":"2025-09-11T14:06:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T00:06:27","slug":"can-hawaii-grow-rice-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/09\/11\/can-hawaii-grow-rice-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Hawai\u02bbi grow rice again?"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

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Nothing says Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> quite like two scoops of rice, a cultural mainstay on every plate lunch across the state. Surprisingly, Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> grows none of its own, importing more than 140 million pounds of it every year. A new partnership between the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience<\/a> (CTAHR<\/abbr>) and the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT<\/abbr>) is looking to change that by exploring the potential to bring rice farming back to the islands.<\/p>\n

In September, the organizations held a rice taste test at UH<\/abbr> Mānoa with three different rice varieties, including one grown by Kauaʻi<\/span> farmer Jerry Ornellas, a former CTAHR<\/abbr> research technician. It was an “experiment to see customers’ preferences of three different rice varieties,” according to CTAHR<\/abbr> professor Tomoaki Miura.<\/p>\n

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Kauaʻi<\/span> farmer Jerry Ornellas (left) grew one of the varieties for the taste test.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Ornellas, the question is not “Can Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> grow rice?” but “Can Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> grow rice again?” The state\u2019s history with rice dates back to the 1860s, with production once thriving in areas such as Wailua on Kauaʻi<\/span> and Waikīkī. The crop was second only to sugar, with more than 10,000 acres dedicated to its cultivation.<\/p>\n

The industry declined due to the influx of immigrants who preferred imported short–grain rice and the inability of local, hand–labor methods to compete with mechanized production in California.<\/p>\n

The rice for this event, a Japanese variety, took only three months to mature on Kauaʻi<\/span> and be ready for harvest. The first harvest yielded more than 400 pounds of rice, which Shunsuke Adachi, an associate professor from TUAT<\/abbr>, described as “very successful” and “surprising.” Adachi noted that the long–term goal of the project is to feed the people of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and improve the state\u2019s food security.<\/p>\n

This was the first rice–tasting event of its kind at UH<\/abbr>, marking a significant step in exploring the viability of local rice production.<\/p>\n

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Faculty and staff from the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology prepared three kinds of rice for the taste test, including one grown on Kauaʻi.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A partnership between CTAHR<\/abbr> and the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology is looking to explore the potential of rice farming in Â鶹´«Ã½.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":221808,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[222,212,9],"class_list":["post-221794","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