State gives rent relief
to Hamakua farmers

A drought-stricken co-op will
not have to pay rent for 2 years

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By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.com

HONOKAA, Hawaii >> Small farmers on the Hamakua Coast north of Hilo, plagued by drought and a bone-dry irrigation system, have been granted relief from state rents.

Some saw the action yesterday as coming just in time to keep agriculture in the area from collapsing.

"I feel if we don't get what we're asking for, many of these farmers are going to give up," said farmer Don Mitts before a vote by the Board of Land & Natural Resources.

Members of the cooperative have lost $11 million since 1998, said George Zweibel, attorney for the 300-member Hamakua-North Hilo Agricultural Cooperative, which leases state land. Only 70 of the 300 have land assigned to them.

Farmer Robert Shioji, who owns his land, supports the rent relief request. "I watched my crops wither and die," he said.

But Shioji, a retired county employee, has a pension to live on. Former sugar workers, trying to become co-op farmers, do not.

The Land Board voted to waive annual payments of $52,048 from the co-op for two years.

That did not let co-op members off the hook. The rent farmers pay to the co-op will now be applied toward building up $104,096 to serve as a performance bond.

The real problem was not the modest $70-per-acre annual rent charged by the state, but the fact that the 92-year-old Hamakua Ditch irrigation system is carrying no water.

Several projects to repair the ditch are under way, and water is supposed to flow again in July. "If the water turns on, we will survive," said co-op head Walker Sanders.

Thirty farmers in a 165-acre agricultural park administered by the state Department of Agriculture were already granted rent relief by that agency. The Land Board action yesterday gives relief, in a somewhat different package, to the 70 farmers in the 705-acre Land Board-administered area.

Board member Lynn McCrory appeared initially skeptical of granting relief, suggesting farmers needed to learn greater self-sufficiency. Farmer Bill Beach convinced her that farmers have been "growing" management experience.

McCrory asked Beach, head of the co-op's water committee, to report to the board if the Hamakua Ditch does not get water this summer.