With focus turning towards the future of farming, a new program aims to grow Hawaiʻi’s agricultural workforce.
In Hawaiʻi, about 14% of farmers are over the age of 75, which puts the state at the top of the list nationally, where most farmers average around 60 years old.
That’s why Leeward Community College is organizing a Farm Manager Training Program to ensure the next generation has the tools they need to take on the task.
HPR spoke with Leeward CC’s agriculture and technology workforce development coordinator, Vince Kimura, to learn more. He’s part of Future Harvest, which is a program dedicated to fostering the next generation of Hawaiʻi’s farm managers.
“There's so many risks, and so understanding that mindset of being able to figure out, you know, we're always going to get these challenges, especially on biosecurity. So how do we do things differently, right?” Kimura said, explaining the difficulties that come with farm management.
“So teaching those different principles … it's for a lot of our smaller farming operations because we have so many of them here. It's really supporting them and helping them thrive.”
The program will feature various immersive hands-on training camps and speaker sessions from different agricultural experts.
More information about the program, which runs for five weeks from Oct. 15 to Nov. 12, can be found here.
This story aired on The Conversation on Oct. 13, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
