Many projects at Kilauea ag center

KILAUEA — A potential new wastewater management system isn’t the only thing new at ‘Aina Hookupu o Kilauea’s Community Agricultural Center.

A water delivery system has been installed on the community farm, with a two-inch supply line servicing all of the 55 acres of the site. Porter Irrigation is supplying the center with water.

To complete the irrigation project, a pipe has been purchased to bring water from the mini golf facility over to KCAC.

“As soon as the grant of easement is signed, we will be able to initiate the work that should not take us more than six weeks to complete,” AHK said in a statement about the project.

An anonymous donor has stepped up in the past six months as well, launching an internship program at KCAC in which six people from the North Shore are learning farming firsthand.

The internships are part-time paid positions that allow participants to learn how to farm, how to create a business, and will allow them to have a short- or long-term lease agreement at the KCAC.

The organization has also secured a license to grow hemp, has started developing their farmers market location with restrooms and pavilions, and has a new wash station on site.

The final big step AKH has taken in the past six months is to jump on board with the Kahili Community Stewardship project — a partnership between community and federal organizations to care for the road and Kilauea side of the Kilauea River.

AHK says all these projects need attention and require a lot of labor and they’re are at a point “where our staff is no longer able to nurture each project adequately.”

“Our biggest need is increasing support for operations and getting more people aware and involved in the incredible innovation that is taking place in our own backyard,” AKH said in the release.