The Hawaii Department of Agriculture has awarded 579 grants totaling $2,684,350 to smallholder farming, including backyard, grazing and animal husbandry businesses in areas facing food insecurity. Of the approximately 600 grants, 32 will go to Kauai County.
More than 7,400 applications were received this fall under microgrant for food security programs. Applications and project proposals were evaluated and ranked by state agriculture department market development agencies and received final approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture last week.
Hawaii Agriculture Commission President Phyllis Shimabukuro Geyser said in a press release: “The grantees submitted well-thought-out proposals that could meet the grant’s objectives of increasing the quality and quantity of locally sourced food in areas with limited access to food.” is the highest.”
Funding for the microgrant program is provided by the USDA under the 2018 Farm Bill. Grant amounts ranged from $750 to $5,000.
Examples of funded proposals include the following projects:
- A fence that protects crops and seedlings from damage by chital deer.
- Purchase of seeds and tree crops.
- Purchasing soil conditioners, compost, tools and irrigation systems.
- Refrigeration/freezing capacity and canning supplies for food storage.
- Purchase of garden towers and raised beds for vegetable production.
- Building shade houses and hydroponics, hydroponics and aeroponics systems.
- Construction of a poultry farm.
In addition to the more than 130 Big Island grants, USDA has also awarded 347 smaller grants on Oahu, 133 on the Big Island of Hawaii, and 67 in Maui County. Additional information about all grants is available by searching under “micro grants” on the State Procurement Agency website.
The review was based on the project description, the number of beneficiaries, and the level of food security where the household was located, as indicated by the Food Insecurity Index calculated by the Conduent Healthy Communities Institute using data from Claritas 2021. I was. Maps of food insecurity by zip code can be found online.