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Hawaii Agriculture Research Center (HARC)


Founded in 1895, the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association (HSPA), dedicated to improving the sugar industry in Hawaii, has become an internationally recognized research center. Its name change in 1996 to Hawaii Agriculture Research Center (HARC) reflects its expanding scope to encompass research in forestry, coffee, forage, vegetable crops, tropical fruits, and many other diversified crops in addition to sugarcane. HARC is a private, non-profit 501c5 organization.

HARC specializes in horticultural crop research including agronomy and plant nutrition, plant physiology, breeding, genetic engineering and tissue culture, and control of diseases and pests through integrated pest management. HARC also performs pesticide registration work; training in areas such as pesticide application and environmental compliance; ground water monitoring; and technical literature searches.

In addition to serving Hawaii's agricultural industries through research and immediate response teams to solve problems, HARC helps other local, national, and international organizations meet their research, on-site consulting, and training needs.

HARC offers a wide array of agricultural services. Mainland seed companies take advantage of Hawaii's favorable weather conditions by utilizing HARC's field and nursery services for winter growouts, seed increases, and testing. The analytical chemistry laboratory specializes in residue studies conducted according to EPA Good Laboratory Practices. The environmental services group offers evaluations for compliance with environmental regulations and assessments for Best Management Practices. HARC produces and sells seed of supersweet corn and leucaena developed by the University of Hawaii and HARC.

HARC's Experiment Station laboratories and administrative offices are located in the Robert L. Cushing Building in Aiea, Hawaii. The modern laboratories are equipped with state of the art instrumentation and equipment to meet the needs of its staff of agronomists, entomologists, weed scientists, pathologists, physiologists, molecular biologists, horticulturists, plant breeders, sugar technologists, chemists, and environmental scientists. An excellent technical library located in the building supports the researchers.

Field stations are maintained on Oahu for agricultural research, as well as field substations on the islands of Kauai and Maui. HARC also operates a breeding substation with a greenhouse for plant breeding and variety development in windward Oahu and a forestry substation on the island of Hawaii.

Picture of HARC's Robert L. Cushing Building in Aiea

HARC's Robert L. Cushing Building in Aiea, Hawaii. Click to download information about leasing laboratory space. This file is in pdf format and can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat Reader.


Hawaii Agriculture Research Center (HARC)
Telephone: (808) 487-5561 Fax: (808) 486-5020
For more information contact Stephanie A. Whalen
phone: (808) 486-5310



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