By TOM CALLIS By TOM CALLIS ADVERTISING Tribune-Herald staff writer Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed a bill Wednesday that will provide coffee farmers with funding to combat the coffee berry borer beetle. The bill allocates $250,000 a year for the next
By TOM CALLIS
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed a bill Wednesday that will provide coffee farmers with funding to combat the coffee berry borer beetle.
The bill allocates $250,000 a year for the next two fiscal years to the state Department of Agriculture to research methods for combating the invasive species plus another $300,000 for control and mitigation efforts.
Jim Wayman, vice president of the Coffee Berry Borer Task Force, said he expects that the funding will help the organization expand its ongoing beetle management program on the Big Island.
“It’s tremendous news,” said Wayman, who is also president of the Hawaii Coffee Company.
“I’m very pleased and I’m very happy with the Legislature and their willingness to work with us all,” he added.
Wayman said the task force will still have to apply for the funding, and it’s unclear when it could be made available.
The organization is still waiting for a $200,000 state grant authorized last year to help fight the beetle, which burrows into coffee cherries, he said, adding that could become available any day.
Wayman said the task force would use the funding to expand its management program in South Kona. That program, started in January, involves providing fungal sprays to farmers as well as educational efforts.
It covers a 1,000-acre area of Kona, which includes about 400 acres of coffee farms, he said.
That area could be doubled, Wayman said. The task force also hopes to use additional funding to continue the program for a few more years. It’s still to early to tell how successful the program will be, he said.
The program area involves about 75 farms.
Rod Yonemura, one of the program administrators, told the Tribune-Herald in May that the infestation rate is about 40 percent in that area.
The tiny beetle from Africa was discovered in Kona in 2010. It was confirmed in Ka‘u the following year.
Rep. Nicole Lowen, D-Kona, introduced the bill.
