Kaua‘i Taro Company Harvests more than 60,000 pounds of taro from Field 107 in 2022

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Hawai`i Event Participants and Adventures

In 2022 Kaua‘i Taro Company’s Adam Asquith harvested the single largest taro he has ever grown in 25 years with a mauka weighing 17.5 pounds!

Corteva Hawai‘i launched its Kaua‘i Farmer Incubator program in May 2021 after identifying a 35-acre parcel in Kekaha and partnering with Kaua‘i Taro Company. In May 2022, the first lo‘i kalo harvest marked an important return of this crop after 174 years. Throughout 2022, Adam Asquith of Kaua‘i Taro Company harvested more than 60,000 pounds of taro from Field 107! He achieved a yield of more than 60,000 pounds per acre from their first patch, which is double the typical yield from current wetland production.

Kaua‘i Taro Company shipped a majority of the harvest to Pomai Kulolo, their processing partner in Honolulu. They kept some taro to process on Kaua‘i, which produced about 10,000 pounds of poi consumed by the Kaua‘i community, including 250 pounds sent to Niihau for Christmas and another 250 pounds sent for New Years. Adam also harvested the single largest taro he has ever grown in 25 years with a mauka weighing 17.5 pounds! With the oha, the single plant yielded more than 30 pounds of taro.

A crew of 6 to 8 kupuna visit Kaua‘i Taro Company every Wednesday to cut huli and take home a mahele of taro and leaf. Adam is finishing construction of the last taro patch that will allow them to sustain weekly production with a short fallow between plantings. This month, he expects to harvest 1,500 to 2,000 pounds of taro weekly from Field 107. The last acre on the mauka side will be planted under dryland methods (drip fertigation and weed mat) and used for luau leaf production and new variety development and propagation. Adam will also dedicate the two small patches on the entrance road to Kanaka School for a farm-to-school partnership.

Corteva Hawai‘i is grateful to provide local farmers like Adam with land on Field 107 to plant and produce locally grown food that stays in our Islands.

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