STAND. COM. REP. NO.205

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 65

S.D. 1

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Economic Development and Water, Land, and Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 65 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRIBUSINESS INCUBATORS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to the University of Hawaii's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources to develop and manage agribusiness incubators throughout the State.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by Hawaii Island Economic Development Board, Hawaii Farm Bureau, Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, and the Pineapple Growers Association. Testimony in support of the measure's intent was submitted by the Board of Agriculture and the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.

Your Committees find that a timely investment in the future of Hawaii's agriculture industry would help remove some variables of risk, allowing new, young farmers to get involved in the industry.

Although passing the measure with a technical, nonsubstantive amendment, your Committees had some concerns with the measure. Questions were raised as to whether the $500,000 being appropriated would be an annual, recurring cost. The Dean of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources noted that it would be a recurrent cost, but that the college is hoping for external funding, which is why the position of a grant writer is included in the measure. Your Committees also asked about the difference between existing extension agents and the new program. The college's dean stated that because of twenty-five per cent funding cuts to the college, and the resulting loss of about eighty positions, the college had to create new methods of meeting its traditional roles and the traditional needs of its stakeholders, while starting new initiatives. The cuts made by the University of Hawaii caused your Committees to question whether the measure's funding would actually make it to the college if the university does not see the college as a priority.

Your Committees hope that the University of Hawaii administration will continue to be supportive of agriculture and ensure that the funding will go to the right place. This incubator is a method of starting new agricultural businesses, which can then get aid from the U.S. Department of Commerce to become more effective. The agriculture industry must learn how to find markets and then discover how and what to grow to meet that market's needs. Accordingly, the college must follow the changing needs of the industry and move from focusing almost solely on the production side of agriculture to include the business side.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Economic Development and Water, Land, and Agriculture that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 65, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 65, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Economic Development and Water, Land, and Agriculture,

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LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair

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CAROL FUKUNAGA, Chair