STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2907

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1514

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Agriculture and Energy and Environment, to which was referred H.B. No. 1514, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURE,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Appropriate funds for the mitigation of, and education relating to, the coffee berry borer; and

 

     (2)  Establish a pesticide subsidy program until June 30, 2019, for the purchase of pesticides containing Beauveria bassiana to combat the coffee berry borer. 

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture; Department of Land and Natural Resources; College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Soil Culture Consulting; K.T.L. Kona Coffee Farm; Hawaii Coffee Association; Edmund C. Olson Trust II; Royal Kona Coffee Visitor Center, Mill & Museum; Kona Coffee Farmers Association; Kona Coffee Council; MauiGrown Coffee, Inc.; Ynot Austin, Inc.; Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation; Hawaii Farmers Union United; Maui Mountain Coffee Farm; Olinda Organic Farm; Greenwell Farms; and eight individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from Aina Ku Hina, Pua Kea Coffee, and one individual. 

 

     Your Committees find that the coffee berry borer, a small beetle discovered in Hawaii in 2010, threatens the viability of Hawaii's entire coffee industry.  If the State is going to control and contain this invasive pest, ongoing and aggressive pest-control efforts are critical.  Treatment costs are a phenomenal financial burden on farmers, and some farmers have already gone out of business due to the high cost of pesticides.  By educating and supporting farmers in combatting the coffee berry borer, Hawaii is safeguarding one of the premiere specialty crops that brings money and tourists into the State. 

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Authorizing the Department of Agriculture to expend up to $50,000 to hire one temporary program specialist for the pesticide subsidy program; and

 

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Energy and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1514, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1514, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture and Energy and Environment,

 

____________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair

 

____________________________

CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair