STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1132

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1177

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Agriculture, to which was referred H.B. No. 1177 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to establish a full-time grant writer position within the Department of Agriculture to assist farmers and ranchers in applying for and obtaining grants offered by the United States Department of Agriculture and to assist farmers and ranchers in fulfilling the requirements of the grants.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii, Hawaii Farm Bureau, and two individuals.

 

     Your Committee finds that many of Hawaii's farmers and ranchers struggle to secure the financial support necessary to establish a thriving, vibrant business and many smaller farm or ranch owners may lack the necessary business and management expertise to seek out and apply for the various sources of funding available to them, including funding provided by the United States Department of Agriculture.  Your Committee further finds that to obtain grants from that department, applicants must complete an application process that is sometimes arduous and complex.  Without specific technical expertise in grant writing, it is difficult for many small farmers or ranchers to obtain those grants.  Your Committee therefore finds that assistance to farmers and ranchers by an experienced grant writer could greatly benefit Hawaii's agricultural businesses.

 

     Your Committee also finds that the grant writer should assist farmers in alignment with state policy, objectives, and planning goals and article XI, section 3, of the Hawaii State Constitution, which requires the State to "promote diversified agriculture, increase agricultural self-sufficiency and assure the availability of agriculturally suitable lands."

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting language that requires the Department of Agriculture grant writer to assist farmers and ranchers who produce local food that is at least partly consumed within the State;

     (2)  Inserting language that requires the grant writer to prioritize assistance to farmers who use organic or Korean natural farming techniques;

     (3)  Amending section 1 to reflect the amended purpose; and

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

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Agriculture that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1177, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1177, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Agriculture,

 

 

 

________________________________

RUSSELL E. RUDERMAN, Chair