Official says farming’s future on Kaua’i can be bright

Waning sugar industry could lead to gains elsewhere

By PAUL C.

CURTIS

TGI Business Editor

LIHU’E — Any discussion about the

current state and projected future of agriculture on Kaua’i must start and end

with sugar, right?

The sugar industry employs more people than any other

commodity on the island and uses the most acreage by far.

Sugar has been

responsible on this island for everything from the very location of towns and

much of the infrastructure. And it has provided secure jobs, housing and other

economic benefits to generations of island inhabitants.

But as sugar wanes

(from five farms in 1994 to two today), and from more than 34,000 acres planted

in 1994 to 24,700 acres in 1998, talk intensifies about a Kaua’i without

sugar—and of how the vast, lush, deep-green, waving fields now containing cane

can ever be utilized by anything else in a way as labor-intensive as

sugar.

Capt. James Cook, upon arriving in Waimea over 200 years ago, noted

in his writings the lush, orderly, well-managed crops the Native Hawaiians

maintained.

The same is true today, with the wide-open spaces between towns

giving easy views of well-maintained sugar, taro, corn, papaya, coffee,

asparagus and other crops which for now ensure the views that visitors and

residents cherish.

“When sugar goes, as important as it is, you lose more

than (just) 400 jobs,” said Bill Spitz, a specialist in the Kaua’i County

Office of Economic Development. “You kiss off a way of life and a footprint

that you can’t replace. Having said that, it still has to pay for itself, or it

doesn’t work.”

Spitz, whose specialty for the county is agriculture, says

the decline of sugar began in the 1940s. Because of World War II, there was a

shortage of island labor. Plantations on the windward sides of the islands

closed first, victims of tough weather and growing conditions.

Ironically,

one of the state’s three surviving plantations has some of its most productive

fields at Kealia. Amfac Sugar Kaua’i sold the land to Kealia Plantation Co. and

leases it back to continue growing sugar.

“We’ve been waiting for sugar for

a long time,” and on Kaua’i papaya and seed corn have taken over lots of former

sugar land, Spitz said.

When the next federal fiscal year begins in

October, there may be funds available to do a feasibility study on range-fed

beef cattle’s ability to replace sugar should sugar go, Spitz said.

It

makes sense, he said, as sugar is grass and cattle eat grass. And range-fed

beef is leaner than mainland corn-fed beef.

“On this island, we can

certainly grow grass better than anyone else,” and that land could quickly be

converted to pasture should sugar’s life on Kaua’i end, he said.

It is

important to act quickly, while irrigation systems are in place and

operational, he urged.

“Wonderful ag (agriculture) land without wonderful

ag water is not terribly useful,” he said.

In order for a cattle industry

to thrive, it must have a product of consistent supply and quality, he

continued.

Of course, it is not the county’s job to be telling landowners

how to utilize their property, Spitz said. At the same time, though, it is

difficult to plan future agricultural alternatives without knowing the

long-range plans of some of the largest private landowners.

Spitz said the

Robinsons have been good stewards of their land, but sugar can use all the help

it can get.

“What we need is a price spike,” he said.

The end of sugar

on the island would really be the end of an era, said Spitz, who once worked on

other islands for Dole and Castle & Cooke in cannery and plantation

operations.

“You can tell a lot of history of the island through

agriculture,” he said.

Overall, Spitz is “cautious” about the future of

agriculture on Kaua’i. Lots of training needs to be done, he feels.

Lots of

Kaua’i farmers don’t do crop logs or aren’t conversant in terms of the true

costs of running a farm, he said. The paperwork side of farming is “difficult

but necessary, because after all, it is a business,” he said.

One thing

that would strengthen small farmers on the island, he said, would be business

training, with information on production scheduling, true costs of operation

and agood versus bad business deals.

Spitz rattled off success story after

success story for Kaua’i farmers and farms, beginning with papaya.

Farmers

at Moloa’a—some of them having endured two hurricanes, problems with other

weather, molds, insects, and getting fruit treated before going to off-island

markets—have suddenly seen cash flow increase to the point where they are

buying their farms from landowner/farmer Mike Strong.

In 1997, 1.3 million

pounds of papaya was grown on Kaua’i. By 1998, the yield was up to 2.4 million

pounds, then 4.8 million pounds last year. For the first half of this year,

the total was 2.7 million pounds.

There is trouble, though, with sooty

mold, leafhopper and wind damage which earlier this year slowed production. On

a small scale, there are several farmers doing well. Some farm part-time, as

second jobs, and gross $2,000 a month, Spitz said.

There are other local

agricultural success stories of hard workers willing to deliver fresh salad

makings, cleaned and bagged, to a local restaurant in need at 10 at

night.

And families with at least one member with business paperwork

experience have thrived.

“Successful farmers have an entrepreneurial

bent,” he said.

And a willingness, in some cases, to journey on the

information superhighway. After Hurricane Iniki, some local flower and foliage

growers were reluctant to put their wares on the Internet or even invest in a

toll-free ordering line, Spitz said.

But once they started to see returns

and profits, they slowly came around, he said.

Today, the Hawai’i Tropical

Flowers and Foliage Association Web site (htffa.com) shows off its entire line

of Kaua’i-grown flowers and nursery products.

Taro is another booming

agricultural business, with 65 farms producing 4.3 million pounds of taro on

230 acres last year. The island produces half the state’s taro. Last year, 55

farmers harvested 3.8 million tons. In 1997, there were 50 farms that harvested

3.3 million pounds of taro.

Like many other industries, taro has trouble in

a soft pocket rot problem. Snails, it appears, is a problem taro farmers are

living with.

“As long as people keep eating poi,” taro has a future on the

island, Spitz said.

Spitz is upbeat about island mango, which has been

cleared for export to the sizable Japan market.

“We could do killer mango

on the Westside,” he said.

There is room for kawa (a root used for soothing

teas and other drinks), but a market must be organized—and that is much easier

said than done, he commented.

The state has identified the area from

Hanapepe to Mana as being among the best for new and expanding aquaculture

operations, Spitz said.

Spitz wants more farms to allow tours of their

operations. Gay & Robinson, a Westside sugar company, offers mill and field

tours which are popular with farmers, engineers and, this summer, young

people.

There should be more tours of agricultural operations on the

island, “and we need things for people to do,” he said.

There are stories

in the Haraguchi rice mill in Hanalei Valley (where the family now grows taro),

and in Grove Farm Homestead Museum, of immigrants who came to work the fields,

and of “the more entrepreneurial who made their own way,” Spitz said.

The

National Tropical Botanical Garden plays a role in the future of agriculture on

the island, he said.

“Anything to reduce the cost of staying in farming

should be done,” he said. While others might think that is promoting tourism

and development, Spitz simply sees it as a way to reduce the cost of

agriculture.

Even while the industry battles the bunchy-top disease, Spitz

feels the island could double its production of banana to meet all local

demand. The island eats about 1 million pounds of bananas a year, and it’s a

$200,000-a-year business.

Last year, 510,000 pounds of banana valued at

$218,000 were harvested and sold on the island. Production is up 20 percent

since 1995.

The island produces about one-third of all bananas eaten on

Kaua’i, with imports from Puna on the Big Island and Waialua on O’ahu. This

Friday, the Hawai’i Banana Industry Association and state Department of

Agriculture will meet to formulate a management plan for bunchy-top

virus.

One of the proposed eradication programs for Kaua’i would have

involved notifying some 13,000 landowners of state officials coming to destroy

the plants, and would have been a paperwork nightmare, he said.

Australia

is also fighting bunchy-top. That country, with 18 million inhabitants, doesn’t

export bananas, but is using quarantine areas, chemicals for the bug (aphid)

causing the damage, and developing disease-resistant plants.

“In order to

eradicate, you have to be ruthless,” said Spitz, adding that when Australia

discovers bunchy-top virus on banana trees, it responds with

bulldozers.

Kaua’i does have assets in the research and information

available through the state and U.S. agriculture departments, and University of

Hawai’i research on all the islands.

An inherent problem with living in a

climate good for growing is that whatever is grown is likely to be a good host

for something else. Control must come on a statewide level, Spitz

said.

Disease-free planting material may be an option. In Taiwan, banana

trees produce one crop, then are plowed under in favor of new plants, to reduce

the chance of things attacking the plants or fruit, he said.

A problem

which could impact all of the island’s “minor crops” (everything except sugar)

is when chemical manufacturers quit making a particular product, or if a

governmental agency finds it unsafe, Spitz said.

The Kaua’i County Farm

Bureau Federation is trying to get farmers working together for the benefit of

island agriculture. The bureau has a commodity advisory group with membership

from one representative of each of the 12 commodity growers.

But, like

trying to tell large landowners how to utilize their property, getting farmers

to agree to change isn’t always an easy task.

“Farmers tend to grow what

they want to grow, what they’re comfortable with, what they know and what they

like,” Spitz said. “Dealing with farmers is like trying to herd cats. They’re

very independent. You tend to work with them, and they tend to

evolve.”

Business editor Paul C. Curtis can be reached at 245-3681 (ext.

224) or pcurtis@pulitzer.net