Lynn Richardson: Large Increase in Banana Bunchy Top Virus

September 3, 2014 Richard Ha

A guest post by Lynn Paul Richardson:

Pressure on banana farmers, due to the Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV), has been steadily increasing over the past four years in East Hawaii. At first, we would rarely see an infection. One infection every three months at our farm in Kurtistown was manageable. There were no cases visible from the main public roads between Kurtistown and Hilo.

Two years ago I began to notice infections in the Kea‘au village area. Most were on the edges of papaya farms, with a few in nearby yards. Papaya farmers often grow a few banana mats on the edges of their fields for home use. We have been educating these farmers about the importance of treating and destroying the infected plants.

Since the beginning of this year, 2014, there has been a large increase in infected plants in homeowners' yards in Kurtistown, Kea‘au and Hilo. These infections also are increasing in subdivisions such as Paradise Park.

WE NOW FIND AND TREAT THREE TO FIVE INFECTIONS ON OUR FARM EVERY WEEK.

BBTV was discovered in Australia 100 years ago. Their method of control is the ONLY successful BBTV control program that exists today. Government inspectors monitor for the disease on a continuous basis. They are allowed to treat BBTV whenever and wherever they find it.

Homeowners are only allowed to plant bananas where they can be seen from the public roadways. All persons must obtain certificates stating that banana plants are disease free before they can be moved to new locations. This keeps the disease pressure low on farmers and hobbyists. Wild bananas are destroyed to prevent them from becoming reservoirs for BBTV.

If Hawaii fails to create an effective BBTV control program, only farms with large buffer zones will be possible in the not-too-distant future. Backyard patches will fail at increasingly higher rates until they no longer produce.

As farmers, we think it would be wise to copy what Australia has been doing successfully. We do not need to reinvent the wheel and risk failure.

It may be possible to create a genetically modified banana that can resist BBTV. The drawback would be the loss of the many cultivars Hawaii currently enjoys, as the economics would dictate that only a few varieties could be saved through GMO technology. Banana farmers would prefer the non-GMO method.

Lynn Paul Richardson

200 Kanoelehua Ave.
PMB 215
Hilo, Hawaii 96720

Bananas

Disturbing Banana Bunchy Top Virus Trend

September 1, 2014 Richard Ha

Richard Ha writes:

We've noticed an uptick lately in the number of banana plants in and around Hilo town that are affected with the banana bunchy top virus (BBTV). Banana farmers are constantly watching for this, and lately we are seeing more of it.

We brought up this disturbing trend with Scott Enright, who is chair of the Department of Agriculture. Kamran Fujimoto had been concentrating on BBTV, but recently he has been focusing on fire ants and coconut rhinocerous beetle and traveling to O‘ahu.

Banana farmers have a tradition of being proactive. Lynn Richardson, who is a veteran banana farmer, had made a BBTV page on Facebook.

We would much rather be proactive and keep the disease under control than need to seek a GMO solution. Australia has a successful BBTV control program going, but it does have a law in place that allows inspectors to go into a person's yard to eradicate infected plants.

Our banana farmers report new infections as they see them, but we have been losing ground lately and it is a big concern.

Scott Enright listened to the banana growers and he immediately assigned two people to work with Kamran. Scott is not one to fool around. He moves fast.

Uncategorized

I Welcome Your Thoughts

August 29, 2014 Richard Ha 2 Comments

Richard Ha writes:

I have been appointed to a national, 25-person Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee. It’s the revival of an old committee.

I’ve been asked for two or three topics of interest; let me know if you have any thoughts. We’re being asked to present ideas ahead of time so they can prepare for any necessary speakers in advance of our first meeting at the end of September. I welcome your thoughts.

Government, Hurricane

Board of Agriculture Approves an Emergency Loan Program for Farmers, Ranchers

August 27, 2014 Richard Ha 2 Comments

Richard Ha writes:

Yesterday, the state Board of Agriculture approved an Emergency Loan Program for farmers and ranchers who suffered damage due to Tropic Storm Iselle.

Governor Neil Abercrombie declared the entire state of Hawai‘i a disaster area due to the high wind and rain associated with Iselle. This authorizes the expenditure of state monies for disaster relief.

The main elements of the Board of Agriculture's emergency loan program are:

Maximum loan amount: $100,000
Terms to be determined on a case-bycase basis as needed. Consideration will be given to the applicants based on prior performance and projected cash flow based on reasonable assumptions of revenue and expenses.
Interest rate: 3 percent (Federal loan program may have lower interest rate)
The credit elsewhere requirement shall be waived for loans of $50,000 or less.
The 3 year residency requirement for U.S. Citizens and permanent resident aliens shall not apply.
Collateral requirements may be modified or waived, as necessary, on a case-by-case basis. Whenever possible, the provisions of Section 155-11, Security for Loans, should be followed.
Emergency Loan Applications can be accepted until December 31, 2014.

Science

Good News for Kaua‘i!

August 25, 2014 Richard Ha

Richard Ha writes:

Breaking news for Kaua‘i. Here’s an article from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser:

Judge: Kauai genetically modified crop law invalid

By Rosemarie Bernardo

POSTED: 09:39 a.m. HST, Aug 25, 2014

LAST UPDATED: 09:51 a.m. HST, Aug 25, 2014

A federal judge struck down a new law regulating the use of pesticides and growth of genetically modified organisms by large-scale commercial agricultural companies on Kauai.

U.S. MagistrateJudge Barry Kurren decided Ordinance 960 (formerly Bill 2491) is invalid and preempted by state law.

The law required seed companies to disclose the types of pesticides they use and establish buffer zones near dwellings, medical facilities, schools, parks, public roadways, shorelines and waterways.

Read the rest

Hopefully, the judge sees things the same way on Bill 113, the Big Island’s anti-GMO bill. We Big Island farmers brought a similar lawsuit only because we want clarity and fairness. Farmers don’t normally sue anybody. That bill has caused us to spend way too much time in meetings and hearings. We farmers just want to go back to farming.

All farmers need to come together to help achieve food security for future generations. And we must do it in the spirit of aloha.

Big Island, Community, Hurricane

Hurricane Iselle: The Aftermath & Human Stories

August 22, 2014 Richard Ha

Richard Ha writes:

Soon after Hurricane Iselle hit the Big Island, the Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United (HFRU) core group called a meeting. We wanted to assess damage, and what we found was that some Big Island farmers were in desperate need.

The human stories which were told by some of the affected farmers were hard to take. One of the independent processors told about being in church on Sunday just after the hurricane and not being able to look a farmer, there with his family, in the eye. They both knew what this damage meant to the farmers. The processor told us at the meeting that it brought him to tears.

Diane Ley, executive director of the USDA’s Farm Service Agency, was on the phone at the after-hours emergency meeting. Scott Enright, who is chair of the Department of Agriculture, participated by cell phone. He had just landed on O‘ahu and was driving to a meeting.

Farmers and their friends pulled together to bring agencies with resources to meet with farmers at one stop. W.H. Shipman, Ltd. made their offices available to the group for meetings. Lorie Farrell did the real heavy lifting by organizing everything. And the support agencies responded.

We met on Tuesday, on W.H. Shipman, Ltd.’s ground, with about 180 people in attendance. Chris Kanazawa, head of the USDA’s Rural Development; Scott Enright, director of the Board of Agriculture; Laverne Omori, county director of Research and Development. So was Chris Manfredi, president of the Hawaii Farm Bureau.

Various agencies had booths where they provided information about their programs. People gave presentations. AgriLogic, which specializes in risk management insurance for farmers, was there. One of the priorities of HFRU is to increase the percentage of farmers covered by crop insurance.

Mayor Billy Kenoi announced he is hiring DayDay Hopkins to be liaison to the farmers. That is a huge deal; DayDay knows farming. I met two county council candidates for the first time that day, Danny Paleka and Ron Gonzales, and after having short conversations, it was clear to me that both are very thoughtful and know what the spirit of aloha is all about.

Yesterday I read in the Star-Advertiser that 287,000 Hawaii residents receive aid through the Hawaii Foodbank and its agencies. I called up Ross Sibucao, the young president of the Hawaii Papaya Industry Association, and asked him: “How many papaya farmers are on food stamps?”

He chuckled at my even asking the question. He said, “Probably zero.”

The farmers are the ones feeding the people. They do important work.

Hurricane

What We Learned From Hurricane Iselle

August 18, 2014 Richard Ha

Richard Ha writes:

There are a lot of things we can learn from the hurricane we just went through.

People saw what needed to be done on the ground and they just did it. Trees needed to be cut, so they cut them. Neighbors needed food and ice, so people got them food and ice. People saw the situations that were problems and they took care of them.

This is a good analogy for what we farmers want to do now. We have been dragged into a battle, and all we want to do is get back to providing food for people. We’re farmers. We want to grow things and feed people. We don’t want to be involved in lawsuits and philosophical battles.

What’s happened is that the Center for Food Safety, and Earth Justice, which is the Sierra Club’s legal arm, are fighting against farmers. We farmers are asking for clarity on this anti-GMO bill. We’re saying tell us what the rules are so we can go back to farming. But those two are fighting against us, so we can’t do that.

Here’s an analogy. It’s as if after the hurricane they said: Yeah, we see all the albizia trees are down, but we want you to focus on something that’s happening in the Midwest, or in India.

Those aren’t local problems.

Or it’s like they were saying, Yeah, we see all the trees down, but you can’t use chainsaws because they’re dangerous. You’ve got to use axes, because they’re natural.

We’re saying, look, we’ve got to use chainsaws. We’ve got to help people.

It’s really that simple. We farmers are spending too much time on all that other stuff and we really just want to get back to farming.

When the Association of Counties asked me to talk about climate change and how the farmer looks at it, I quoted Neil DeGrasse Tyson. He talks about climate change being the guy and his dog walking down the beach. The man walking straight down the beach is the climate, and the dog running back and forth is the weather.

The climate is the policy kind of stuff, and hopefully the climate people make the right decisions.

We farmers deal with the weather. If there’s a storm, or an insect, we deal with it. We’ve got to concentrate on growing food. Otherwise, we end up trying to make policy, and we’re not scientists. We’re farmers.

We just want to get back to farming.

Community, Current Affairs

Farmers & Friends, a New Publication

August 18, 2014 Richard Ha

Richard Ha writes:

This is a sample of a new publication, "Farmers & Friends," that we are planning to launch. Several of us put together this publication to tell stories about what farmers do.

We don't want to engage in "pro-" this or that. We just want to tell interesting, farm-related stories.

From our mission statement:

Farming is an endlessly fascinating subject and a challenging vocation. Agriculture is also a corner‐stone of any successful civilization. That was true of Hawai‘i in ancient times and remains true today. We are an island society steeped in agricultural traditions. To sustain that legacy, and to continue the transition to diversified agriculture, we must respect our roots and embrace new knowledge. That’s our mission.

It is apparent to us that the working farmers of Hawaii need a voice. Real farmers respect science and ground truth. They learn by doing. They are naturally pragmatic and open-minded. As a rule farmers and people in business are too busy to engage in long-winded arguments or public anger. They are usually caught up in the next learning curve and have a story to tell about it. That's a voice worth hearing.

Hurricane

Papaya Families Hit Hard by Iselle

August 13, 2014 Richard Ha

Richard Ha writes:

There's an article in today's Hawaii Tribune-Herald called Ag Crops Sustained Extensive Damage From Iselle.

Everyone is busy gathering data as to the extent of damage. We just had a meeting of the Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United and a preliminary discussion with the USDA Farm Services Agency, as well as the Board of Ag chair by phone. The outcome was that we needed to get clear data from which the various agencies could start to work. We are busy getting this done.

Ollie English from WH Shipman, Ltd., was up in a helicopter to get an aerial view and the various industry representatives gave a report.

We were interviewed by John Burnett of the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.

In addition to just numbers, those of us in the room heard a papaya farmer family describe how hard the last few cycles have been. A mom described how 10 acres of her family papaya farm had been cut down by vandals a little bit ago. Beside paying all the clearing, fertilizer and pest control costs, the crop that had been cut down represented the income to help one son to go to college. They were very discouraged and wanted to quit. Two of her sons told her it would be poho (wasteful) to not use the equipment that they already had. So the two decided that they would continue on. They had a strong outbreak of a fungus about a year ago. And that put extreme pressure on the family. But they persevered.

A year later, now, the new plantings were just ready to start harvesting. The fruit column was full and heavy. They were looking forward to two years of harvest where they hoped to recover the cash out and make some money. But Hurricane Iselle came through and snapped off all the heavily laden trees at the point where the most mature fruit were.

We in the room were quiet. We all know the despair that she, her husband, and two sons felt. This is representative of all the papaya farmers who had wind damage.

One of the independent papaya processors told of being in church and seeing a papaya farmer and his family. He told us that it brought tears to his eyes and that he couldn't look at the farmer. The overall sense of despair was very hard to take.

Colleen Hanabusa has met with farmers here more times than any county council member or any other politician for that manner, and that's why farmers really know and trust her. It's nice that she was on the island.

Hurricane

Helping the Papaya Farmers

August 11, 2014 Richard Ha 1 Comment

Richard Ha writes:

Today, Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United are meeting to figure out how we can help the Big Island papaya farmers who had such devastating losses in Hurricane Iselle. We are going to support them in any way we can. That is absolute first priority.

My son Brian has been making ice at our tomato packing house. He did that Saturday, Sunday and again today (using our hydroelectric, powered by the river) and then taking it down to Hawaiian Beaches where they don't have electricity.

He and his friends made 400 quarts of ice and took it down there with a sign, "Mauna Kea Banana Ice," and he said it was gone in five minutes.

We are planning to take bananas down to the papaya packing house, where the papaya farmers are packing up whatever they can, and distribute the bananas to the farmers there. The rest will go with Brian to distribute wherever he ends up in Puna.

The most important thing is how we can help the rest of the farmers.