STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2034

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 2000

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 2007
                                        S.D. 1




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

Sir:

     Your Committee on Economic Development, to which was
referred S.B. No. 2007 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR AGRICULTURAL
     RESEARCH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate $10,000, for
fiscal year 2000-2001, for research to control heart rot of
coconut palms.

     Testimony in favor of this measure was submitted by the
Department of Agriculture, the College of Tropical Agriculture,
University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hawaii Farm Bureau, Maui County
Farm Bureau, and one individual.

     Your Committee finds that heart rot is a serious disease
that was established in the islands over forty years ago, and for
which there is still no known cure.  Heart rot is particularly
insidious because by the time the disease is discovered, the tree
is already dead.  While there is no approved fungicidal control
to prevent the disease, injection of systemic fungicide into
healthy trees has shown promise as a means to protect them from
infection.

     Your Committee has heard that more research needs to be done
in this vital area if Hawaii's signature coconut palms are to
survive.  Unfortunately, your Committee has not heard that the
Department of Agriculture considers these research efforts to be

 
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                                   STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2034
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a priority of the department.  Your Committee strongly suggests
that the department reorder its priorities to elevate its
activities in heart rot research.  Your Committee finds this to
be both an agricultural and an economic issue for the State and
has therefore amended this measure to increase the appropriation
for research to control heart rot of coconut palms from $10,000
to $50,000.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Economic Development that is attached to this
report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose
of S.B. No. 2007, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass
Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2007,
S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Economic
                                   Development,



                                   ______________________________
                                   LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair

 
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