{"id":86519,"date":"2018-10-22T16:23:46","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T02:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=86519"},"modified":"2020-11-13T13:01:33","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T23:01:33","slug":"kilauea-eruption-agricultural-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/10\/22\/kilauea-eruption-agricultural-survey\/","title":{"rendered":"<abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> study shows farmers lost nearly $28 million from K\u012blauea eruption"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/manoa-ctahr-kilauea-farm-survey.jpg\" alt=\"lava approaching a farm\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-86521\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/manoa-ctahr-kilauea-farm-survey.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/manoa-ctahr-kilauea-farm-survey-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M&#257;noa<\/a> survey of farmers, ranchers and other agricultural producers on <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island by the <a href=\"https:\/\/cms.ctahr.hawaii.edu\/\">College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources<\/a> (<abbr>CTAHR<\/abbr>) shows that recent eruptions of K&#299;lauea\u2019s east rift zone have caused almost $28 million in damage.<\/p>\n<p><abbr>CTAHR<\/abbr> agricultural economist <strong>Matthew Loke<\/strong> surveyed the damage. He found while the damage was severe, farmers are determined to bring back their crops.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;A majority of ag producers with farms destroyed are eager to start over again,&rdquo; said Loke. &ldquo;They are seeking needed resources to restore their livelihood and return to their passion for farming.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/gms.ctahr.hawaii.edu\/gs\/handler\/getmedia.ashx?moid=31033&#038;dt=3&#038;g=12\">Download the survery (<small><abbr title=\"portable document format\">PDF<\/abbr><\/small>)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Loke, a <abbr>CTAHR<\/abbr> faculty member in the <a href=\"https:\/\/cms.ctahr.hawaii.edu\/nrem\/\">Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/hdoa.hawaii.gov\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Department of Agriculture\u2019s<\/a> Agricultural Development Division, conducted the survey to gauge losses sustained from the eruptions at the request of the <a href=\"http:\/\/hawaiisflowers.com\/our-book\/2-uncategorised\/36-hawaii-floriculture-and-nursery-association.html\">Hawaii Floriculture and Nursery Association<\/a> (<abbr>HFNA<\/abbr>) and <abbr>CTAHR<\/abbr> Interim Associate Dean for Extension <strong>Kelvin Sewake<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Responses to the survey, which was distributed by <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa\u2019s <abbr>CTAHR<\/abbr> extension and <abbr>HFNA<\/abbr> members agents in early August, showed that at least 46 farms had been affected by the lava. The eruption displaced more than 1,337 acres of arable land on <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island, for total reported farm losses of $27.9 million. These losses included crops (61 percent), land, building structures, inventory and equipment. Respondents included cacao and <span aria-label=\"ulu\">&#699;ulu<\/span> farmers, macadamia and orchid growers and other producers. The agricultural industries with the highest reported losses were floriculture and nurseries, at $13.3 million, and papayas at $6.5 million. A minority of the producers had crop insurance.<\/p>\n<p>Of the respondents, 52 percent reported owning their farm lands, while the remainder leased or rented. Most survey respondents did not live on their farm lands, so loss of livelihood was not necessarily coupled with loss of living situation. Most do not plan to replant or put the affected acreage to other use, though a large majority (87 percent) of the producers whose farms were destroyed are willing to relocate and start over on new land.<\/p>\n<p>While the majority of the producers had access to housing, food, water, clothing and toiletries after the disaster, 63 percent said they were in need of information about applying for public assistance, including disaster unemployment assistance, financial assistance and health insurance. The survey results will be used by <abbr>HFNA<\/abbr> to seek federal, state and county government assistance for the affected farmers and to help them return to farming as soon as possible.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;<span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> agriculture has had a rough year, with torrential rains, volcanic eruptions and hurricanes,&rdquo; said <abbr>CTAHR<\/abbr> Dean <strong>Nicholas Comerford<\/strong>. &ldquo;The college is working hand-in-hand with the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Department of Agriculture and the agricultural industry to provide any and all support that we can through our <a href=\"https:\/\/cms.ctahr.hawaii.edu\/ce\">cooperative extension<\/a> program, including growing seed to help re-establish the industries that were hurt.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;By Frederkia Bain<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources agricultural economist Matthew Loke found that while the damage was severe, farmers are determined to bring back their crops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[222,212,1313,544,9],"class_list":["post-86519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-agriculture","tag-college-of-tropical-agriculture-and-human-resilience","tag-kilauea-eruption-2018","tag-natural-resources-and-environmental-management","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86519"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130522,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86519\/revisions\/130522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}