Resilience of breadfruit agro-ecosystems in Hawai'i during the COVID-19 pandemic

E H Berning; C V H Andersen; O Mertz; N Dickinson; M Opgenorth; N K Lincoln; J H Rashford; N Rønsted

doi:10.1186/s43170-022-00125-3

Resilience of breadfruit agro-ecosystems in Hawai'i during the COVID-19 pandemic

CABI Agric Biosci. 2022;3(1):56. doi: 10.1186/s43170-022-00125-3. Epub 2022 Sep 4.

Authors

E H Berning^#¹, C V H Andersen^#¹, O Mertz¹, N Dickinson^{2

3}, M Opgenorth^{3

4}, N K Lincoln⁵, J H Rashford^{6

2}, N Rønsted^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
² National Tropical Botanical Garden, Kalāheo, Kauai, HI USA.
³ Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁴ National Tropical Botanical Garden, Hāna, Maui, HI USA.
⁵ Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Hawai`I at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI USA.
⁶ College of Charleston, Charleston, SC USA.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is interrupting domestic and global food supply chains resulting in reduced access to healthy diverse diets. Hawai'i has been described as a model social-ecological system and it has been suggested that indigenous agro-ecosystems have the potential to be highly productive and resilient under changing land-use and climate change disturbance. However, little research has yet been conducted exploring the disruption and resilience of agro-ecosystems in Hawai'i caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The breadfruit tree (Artocarpus altilis; Moraceae) is a signature, multi-purpose-tree of the complex perennial agro-ecosystems systems in Oceania.

Methods: This case study explores the ways in which the breadfruit agro-ecosystems of Hawai'i have shown resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Results: Our study suggests that breadfruit has increased its value as a subsistence crop during the COVID-19 pandemic, even in a developed economy like Hawai'i, and that resilience of Hawaiian breadfruit agroe-cosystems during a crisis can be supported through cooperatives and food-hubs.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s43170-022-00125-3.

Keywords: Agro-ecosystems; Agroforestry; Breadfruit; Crop diversity; Ecological resilience; Food security; Hawaii.