Farmers, lawmakers gather to celebrate first harvest at Kunia Ag Park

After more than a year of hard work, a group of farmers in Kunia celebrated the bounty of their first harvest.
The occasion was marked Friday morning at the Kunia Ag Park.

Between the Ewa flats and Wahiawa is a place called Kunia farmers.     
For over the past year a public/private partnership between the state, city and local land owner Monsanto Hawaii has allowed a group of local small farmers to lease the land.

"The 184 acre park is now 100 percent leased out by these 18 farmers who are all growing food crop," says Dean Okimoto of Nalo Farms.

Souk Hoang left work in the travel industry to start farming in Mililani back in 2005 and it hasn’t been easy.

"But the one thing that kept me going was the customers telling me, ‘Thank you for growing us food and keeping us healthy’," he says.

Hoang has four acres at the Kunia Ag Park and is proud of his first crop of corn, chili peppers and ulu.
He has also just planted fruit trees, something he wanted to point out to Sen. Dan Inouye.

"Mr. Senator – five years from now you please visit us again and by then my fruit trees will be ready to harvest."

With the success of this first season, the state is working with Monsanto Hawaii to possibly open up more land for local farmers in the future.