New agriculture
college team plans
revitalized role
By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin
The University of Hawaii-Manoa's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources has permanent leaders for the first time in three years and they aim to revitalize both the school and the agriculture industry.
Andrew G. Hashimoto, a 1962 Punahou School graduate, left Oregon State University, where he was vice provost for academic affairs and a bioresource engineering professor, to head the UH ag college.
Appointed dean in October, he began working full time Jan. 4.
You might expect to find him based in the new UH Ag Sciences Building. Instead, he's operating from the old College of Agriculture quarters in Gilmore Hall.
Ignoring his own distinguished background, he said the new facility "is for important people who do the work in classrooms and laboratories. That's what the money was appropriated for."
Hashimoto holds degrees from Purdue and Cornell universities in civil, environmental and agricultural engineering. He was a professor at Cornell and the University of Nebraska and research leader of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Engineering Research Unit.
His research expertise is in bioconversion processes, ethanol fuels and waste management systems, which he said he'd like to explore in Hawaii, "but I'm pretty busy with other things now."
He pointed out that his college, like the state, has gone through hard economic times: Its budget is down 25 percent, to $15.5 million a year in state general funds from about $20.5 million a year in recent years. The full-time faculty has dropped to 320 from about 475 in 1995.
The average faculty age is 53 and only one member isn't tenured, reflecting the college's inability to recruit because of frozen positions or lack of money, Hashimoto said. However, the college anticipates a budget increase this year and it hopes to hire some young faculty members.
The situation must be addressed, Hashimoto said, stressing that "faculty really are the lifeblood of a college -- the intellectual capital."
With a permanent dean and three permanent associate deans providing some stability, "We've finally got a team together that can begin to address some issues," he said.
Through research, instruction and outreach, he feels the college should play a role in three major areas:
Diversifying the state's economy through new enterprises and opportunities;
Protecting the state's ecosystem;
Strengthening communities, especially rural ones impacted by the closing of sugar plantations.
"Institutions in Hawaii can provide resources for the rest of the world," observed state Agriculture Director James J. Nakatani. "We've got a lot of horsepower, a lot of good things coming out from Hawaii. We just need to capitalize on that."
Nakatani said Hashimoto already has generated optimism.
"Andy is really wanting to do something, so I think it'll happen. My impression is he's kind of a mover, and if he says something, it'll happen. I believe him."
H. Michael Harrington preceded Hashimoto as interim dean and has returned to his position as a biochemist, cell and molecular biologist. Harrington said Hashimoto "has articulated the same sorts of things we have been working on the last three or four years."
The big problem, he said, has been a decline in resources "at a time when the need for the kinds of services the college provides went up, and it's frustrating to be able to manage under those conditions."
In response to budget pressures, however, he said, "We learned to do things a bit differently, and I think we are much stronger for that."
Since its inception, the college has had a major role in helping to build and diversify the agricultural industry, Harrington said, and has always had a significant state presence through cooperative, extension and community-based programs.
One of the biggest challenges now is finding the most productive use for lands opening up with sugar closures.
"That's why I came here," Hashimoto said. "This is a real transition period. I think Hawaii is at a crossroads. We can make a positive impact on the state, or we can blow it."
He likened much of diversified agriculture to the software industry: "The way you will be successful is to be first in the market, have a high quality product and fill a need."
Because of difficulty competing with areas with lower land and labor costs, "Our strategy is to be an industry leader, to come out with new products, to find niches."
He said he can't understand why feeder cattle are grown on the Big Island, sent to the mainland or Canada, slaughtered and the meat shipped back.
"Why can't we produce meat for consumption? Why can't we satisfy local demand for different vegetables, milk, something we can produce, he asked. "We need a lot more economic analyses to see why we're not more competitive."
The state has to retain commodities that are successful here, such as coffee, papayas and bananas, he said. Hawaii's microclimates also offer varied environments for different products that can fill niche markets, he said.
Hawaii already has a favorable brand identity, Hashimoto said, noting flowers from Hawaii usually attract a premium price. "I think we should be the benchmark, the standard, in areas we want to emphasize."
To this end, he said, the college wants to help entrepreneurs make money in diversified agriculture.
"At the same time, we have to be very, very conscious of the responsibility for stewardship for the environment that we have."
Diversified agriculture
key to state economy,
dean says
By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin
Hawaii's agriculture industry and related activities contribute nearly $3 billion annually to the state's economy, with diversified farming activities providing a big chunk of it.
The value of diversified agriculture has increased 97 percent in 19 years, says Andrew G. Hashimoto, dean of the University of Hawaii-Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.
It has grown 5 percent a year while the total state economy has grown less than 1 percent per year over the past 10 years, he said.
"Clearly, diversified agriculture is growing steadily more valuable to the state, and the rate of growth can be increased significantly with strategic investment."
The Hawaii Agricultural Statistics Service says agriculture's "farmgate" value in 1999 increased 3 percent -- to $528 million. Farmgate applies to everything produced on a farm, from vegetables to chickens and pigs.
About 94 percent, or $339 million, of the farmgate value was from diversified crops -- other than sugar cane and pineapple -- in 1999. By comparison, diversified crops totaled about $172 million in 1980, only 27 percent of the total.
Pineapple and sugar are still Hawaii's top two commodities, but diversified agriculture has been on a steady upward trend, said Donald Martin, statistician-in-charge of the Hawaii Agricultural Statistics Service Branch.
Because diversified agriculture picked up the slack, the industry's total value has increased despite sugar downsizing. The total value of agriculture includes all related jobs and activities, such as fertilizer, truck drivers who haul crops and others who rely entirely or partly on agriculture for their business activity, Martin said.
About 40,000 to 45,000 jobs are directly or indirectly involved in the agriculture industry. The figures use 1992 as a base, but are still relevant in terms of showing the total impact, Martin said. Opportunities are opening up for high-value products for niche markets, such as specialty vegetables produced by a Waimanalo farmer for upscale restaurants, he said.
Agri-tourism also is getting a lot of attention. Agriculture not only is important to the economy on the neighbor islands but it's important to tourism, Martin pointed out.
"You look at Maui, for example. When planes land, you see acres of green sugar cane. If sugar wasn't there, you might look at dust storms."
People also want to visit farms, he said, and coffee farms in Kona are trying to become a tourist attraction, like the Napa Valley wine country in California.
Some farms also are offering bed and breakfasts, a development that's spreading through Europe's rural areas, he said.
