First Person: Innovation brewing at Hawaii coffee farm

Fred Cowell is the General Manager of Kauai Coffee Company on the island of Kauai in the Pacific Ocean Hawaiian archipelago, which has the biggest coffee farm in the United States accounting for 25 to 30 percent of United States production in any given year. He talked to UN News about sustainability and development as part of an International Labour Company photography task called “Self-respect at Work: The American Experience” which is documenting the working life of individuals throughout the United States.

“Technology is definitely assisting us to do a much better job. At Kauai Coffee Business, the innovation we are taking a look at includes sensors, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. Sensors will potentially give us real-time feedback on conditions on the farm, which I like to call the “internet of farm.” AI has the potential to improve information analysis using those sensing units. Our group won an AgTech “Hackathon” (finding technological developments in agriculture) in 2019 for demonstrating an AI-assisted electronic camera that could discover to acknowledge ripe coffee. The idea would be used on our harvesters to offer the human operators direct feedback on ground speed and shaker intensity to optimize volume and ripeness as they collect the coffee. We have not yet put this into use, but it absolutely has possible.

More smart farming with better sensing units and information processing is relevant to almost all farming operations throughout the world, particularly large farms. Robotics could minimize labour costs on recurring tasks such as mowing and weed control. We deploy a drone to survey the land and to make aerial maps which can be shared digitally. A photograph or a 360-degree video supplies a various point of view and allows me to communicate better with associates about handling the farm.

The impact of COVID-19

We have also used the drone to make an interactive virtual truth film of the estate, which reveals all parts of our operation to our visitors.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we received more than 800 visitors a day and we, clearly, can’t let those people stroll into the coffee growing locations, so the discussion with a virtual reality head-set is an outstanding way to provide them a literal introduction of the farm and what goes on here.

Farm and upkeep operations have actually continued throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, however with social distancing. The group has actually done an excellent task and we’ve even seen a decline in security occurrences due to the increased awareness throughout the team.
We have actually lost practically all our sales to tourists within the state following the closure of our visitor center however we’ve recently reopened with a much smaller sized footprint. Our mainly regional sales are less than 10 per cent of pre-crisis volumes, however online sales have nearly doubled and we’re now attempting to understand the phenomenon plainly so that we can continue the momentum.

Sustainability, biochar and micro-herds

Technology goes hand in hand with sustainability which we are moving towards on the farm. We are very concentrated on soil nutrition. There are more bacteria in a tablespoon of soil than there are individuals on Earth and there are a lot of tablespoons of soil here.

Instead of injecting nutrients into the trees, which resembles keeping an athlete alive on an IV, we’re now acknowledging that the health of the tree and the quality of that fruit depends upon the health of the billions and trillions of microorganisms, what we in some cases call the micro-herd, that really enable the plant to survive. Without the healthy dynamic microcosm of life in the soil, it’s just dirt.

Our main emphasis is on increasing the health of the soil and biochar (a charcoal-like substance that’s made by burning organic product which can enhance soil health and sequester carbon from the atmosphere) is one of the prospective tools for that. Composting and utilizing cover crops to enhance the soil are our primary focus but inserting biochar into our composting material would be a great method to introduce it to our fields.

I’ve been forcing myself and asking my team to do our finest with the current circumstance but look beyond the shutdown and after-effects to those things that will make us more durable 3 to 5 years from now. As an example, we simply sent a grant proposition to US Department of Agriculture to host an on-farm soil health demonstration fixated quantifiable financial impacts of composting and cover crops.

Chocolate, coffee and culture

Now that we have an established coffee plantation, we are taking a look at what can grown within the coffee. We’re considering pongamia trees to produce fuel oil or bio-diesel that could be used to power tractors. We’re taking a look at maybe reintroducing macadamia nut trees as windbreaks. It’s not a terrific commodity crop, however, we might package it here and sell straight to our visitors which would be successful. We might even grow cacao and produce chocolate-covered macadamia nuts and chocolate covered coffee for sale.