Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water, Land, and Agriculture and Business and Economic Development, to which was referred S.B. No. 3078 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to direct the Office of Planning to create an action plan to transfer specific duties of the Department of Agriculture and the Agribusiness Development Corporation to the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism.

Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Agribusiness Development Corporation; the Department of Agriculture; the Dean of the University of Hawaii's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources; Alluvion, Inc.; the Big Island Farm Bureau; C&H Farms; the Hawaii Agriculture Research Center; the Hawaii Beekeepers' Association; the Hawaii Cattlemen's Council; the Hawaii Coffee Association; the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association; the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation; the Hawaii Food Manufacturers Association; the Hawaii Forest Industry Association; the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce; the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers; Kahuku Brand Matsuda-Fukuyama Farms, Inc.; the Kona County Farm Bureau; the Kona Pacific Farmers Cooperative; the Maui County Farm Bureau; Waimanalo Agricultural Association; and seven individuals. Comments were submitted by the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Office of Planning, and the Hawaii Government Employees Association.

Your Committees find that in 1994, Agribusiness Development Corporation was created to assist the agricultural industry transition from sugarcane and pineapple to other diversified crops. One of the responsibilities the legislature tasked this new and dynamic entity with was to develop the Hawaii Agribusiness Plan. The plan's purpose was to define and establish goals, objectives, policies, and priority guidelines for Agribusiness Development Corporation's agribusiness development strategy. However, this plan was never created.

Your Committees find that in order for Agribusiness Development Corporation to be effective, strategies and goals must be developed to guide its Board of Directors. Accordingly, this measure was amended to direct the Legislative Reference Bureau to conduct a study to identify elements that should be included in the Hawaii Agribusiness Plan. In developing its report, the Legislative Reference Bureau will:

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land, and Agriculture and Business and Economic Development that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3078, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3078, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.