TerViva grows pongamia trees on 100 acres of old sugarcane land near Oahu’s rural North Shore town of Haleiwa. The non-GMO legume tree crop has potential as renewable biofuel and high-yielding cattle feed crop, and has established pharmacological properties.
When Naveen Sikka, TerViva’s co-founder and CEO, first heard about pongamia, he was inspired by the possibility to “make both food and energy on the same field,” and he took the leap of opportunity.
For TerViva, these trees hold the key to revitalizing communities left paralyzed about what to do with their empty agricultural land. Naveen says TerViva is “excited to show that there’s a new potential future in agriculture that isn’t going to have to rely on the same foundation that we’ve always had.”