STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2156

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2805

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism and Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2805 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require the Agribusiness Development Corporation to develop a program to educate and assist farmers and ranchers in the process of transitioning agricultural businesses to new owners;

(2) Require the program to connect individuals interested in entering farming or ranching, or existing farmers or ranchers interested in expanding their business, with farmers and ranchers who have not yet identified a successor owner; and

(3) Appropriate money.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Agribusiness Development Corporation; Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau; Hawaii Cattlemen's Council, Inc.; and one individual.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Agriculture.

Your Committees find that the State's total amount of agricultural land has decreased by over twenty-seven thousand acres since 2015 and that this is in part due to the aging of the agricultural workforce. Because younger generations in farming families are often reluctant to take over family farms, many farmlands in the State are at risk of falling fallow which could further compromise the State's food security. Your Committees further find that this measure effectively supports the process of transitioning agricultural businesses to the next generation through a succession planning education program developed by the Agribusiness Development Corporation.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting an effective date of January 1, 2060, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2805, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2805, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism and Agriculture and Environment,

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

________________________________ LYNN DECOITE, Chair