STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3386

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 2000

                                   RE:  H.B. No. 2996
                                        H.D. 2




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B.
No. 2996, H.D. 2, entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL LOANS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to allow the Department of
Agriculture to make class E agricultural loans to qualified food
manufacturers.

     The bill also creates a new category of loans called class G
agricultural loans to be made to part-time farmers.

     Your Committee finds that despite the demise of sugar and
pineapple in Hawaii, agriculture still remains a potential growth
industry for our State.  What is needed is a way to provide an
economic stimulus for new farmers, part-time farmers, and food
manufacturers or processors of Hawaii-grown agricultural products
or who use Hawaii-grown agricultural products as an ingredient in
the manufacturing process.

     Your Committee finds that many families are undertaking
agricultural production on a part-time basis to supplement
earnings obtained from full-time employment by one or more
members of the household.  Government agricultural loans tend to

 
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be tailored to full-time farming, leaving entrepreneurial start-
up farmers with little initial capital to begin their farming.

     Your Committee further finds that diversified agriculture,
or the cultivation of Hawaii-grown produce, should be encouraged
as an industry to replace the sugar industry.  Providing loans to
qualified food manufacturers will make it easier to sell
agricultural products out-of-state.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your
Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No.
2996, H.D. 2, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

                                 Respectfully submitted on behalf
                                 of the members of the Committee
                                 on Ways and Means,



                                 ________________________________
                                 CAROL FUKUNAGA, Co-Chair



                                 ________________________________
                                 ANDREW LEVIN, Co-Chair

 
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