Bill Text: HI SB1474 | 2012 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Coffee Berry Borer Mitigation Program; Kona; Appropriation

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 7-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-12-01 - Carried over to 2012 Regular Session. [SB1474 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SB1474-Introduced.html

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THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	1474
TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2011
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

making an appropriation for investigation and mitigation of damage done by the coffee berry borer.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 

     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei, is a small beetle native to Africa.  It is recognized to be the most harmful pest to coffee crops worldwide, causing an estimated $500,000,000 in losses annually.  The coffee industry has an economic value exceeding $70,000,000,000 each year, with over twenty million coffee-farming families producing coffee in more than fifty countries.

     The tiny, 1.5 millimeter coffee berry borer causes damage by boring and depositing eggs into the berry.  Larvae hatch and feed on the seed or bean, destroying it.  The beetle spends its entire larval life inside the coffee berry, which encases the seed, commonly known as the coffee bean.  Males mate inside the berry with females, but never emerge.  Only mated females emerge to fly to a new berry and bore into it to lay eggs and start the cycle anew.  Only while outside the berry are the adult female borers vulnerable to predators or chemical controls.

     The insect was native to Angola and spread to the rest of Africa during the 1920s.  In 1926, they were first reported in the Americas in Brazil.  The beetle spread to Guatemala and Mexico in the 1970s, Colombia in the late 1980s, and the Dominican Republic in the 1990s.  In September, 2010, the beetle was discovered in Kona on the island of Hawaii.

     The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funding from the agricultural development and food security special fund for investigation and mitigation of damage done by the coffee berry borer.

     SECTION 2.  There is appropriated out of the agricultural development and food security special fund established under section 141‑10, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the sum of $750,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2011-2012 and the same sum or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2012-2013 for investigation and mitigation of damage done by the coffee berry borer in the Kona region on the island of Hawaii as follows:

     (1)  $          to fund investigative research by the college of tropical agriculture and human resources of the University of Hawaii, in collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture's Pacific Basin Agriculture Research Center in Hilo, to develop practical techniques for use to combat the effects of the coffee berry borer in the Kona region on the island of Hawaii;

     (2)  $          to fund one position in the Kona office of the cooperative extension service of the college of tropical agriculture and human resources of the University of Hawaii, whose specific responsibility shall be to assist farmers to implement the coffee berry borer mitigation program described in paragraph (3);

     (3)  $          to fund, for a minimum of three years, one temporary department of agriculture position to be filled by a professional entomologist with biological control experience, whose responsibility shall be to develop a coffee berry borer mitigation program applicable for the Kona region on the island of Hawaii;

     (4)  $          to purchase and install equipment to identify and track areas of coffee berry borer infestation in the Kona region on the island of Hawaii;

     (5)  $          for the department of agriculture to obtain contract services from research agencies to develop and test coffee berry borer control and eradication processes;

     (6)  $          to provide sanitation services to eliminate coffee berry borer infestations on abandoned farms that contain uncultivated coffee in the Kona region on the island of Hawaii;

     (7)  $          to locate and establish a coffee berry borer quarantine site with equipment and services to fumigate or provide heat treatment of green coffee beans for shipment from the island of Hawaii; and

     (8)  $          to fund travel and administrative expenses necessary to support the operations of the coffee berry borer task force.

     The sums appropriated in paragraphs (1) and (2) shall be expended by the University of Hawaii for the purposes of this Act.

     The sums appropriated in paragraphs (3) through (8) shall be expended by the department of agriculture for the purposes of this Act.

     SECTION 3.  The department of agriculture, in collaboration with the coffee berry borer task force, shall submit a report to the legislature no later than July 31, 2011.  The report shall document the expenditure of funds and the progress of activities authorized by this Act.

     SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2011.

 

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

 

 

Report Title:

Coffee Berry Borer Mitigation Program; Kona; Appropriation

 

Description:

Appropriates funds in FY 2011-2012 and FY 2012-2013 to mitigate the effects of the coffee berry borer in the Kona region on the island of Hawaii.  Requires DOA to submit a progress report to the legislature.

 

 

 

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