Farmers on Oahu’s North Shore are trying to recover from Hawaii’s worst flooding in two decades, but many say the damage could permanently disrupt their ability to grow and sell food locally.
In the Waialua area, the reddish-brown mud that covered Bok Kongphan’s farm has hardened in the sun, leaving irrigation tubes tangled where lemongrass, cucumber and okra had been growing. Kongphan’s niece, Jeni Balanay, said her crops were lost as well, including choy sum, bitter melon, tomatoes, and multiple recently planted banana, coconut and mango trees that have gone yellow. Officials have urged farmers not to give up, emphasizing that local agriculture matters for an isolated archipelago with limited alternatives.
Brian Miyamoto, executive director of the Hawaii Farm Bureau, described the scale of destruction in blunt terms. “In some cases entire farms have been wiped out,” Miyamoto said, adding that some growers were days or weeks away from harvesting before the storms forced them to begin again.
Across the islands, farming advocates said more than 600 of Hawaii’s 6,500 farms reported nearly $40 million in damage, including to crops, livestock and machinery. Miyamoto said the farm bureau estimates the overall damage is much broader, at about $50 million affecting close to 2,000 farms.
The crisis comes after decades in which Hawaii’s agriculture shifted from plantation-style monoculture toward smaller farms with wider crop mixes aimed at local grocery stores and farmers markets. Officials highlighted that the importance of local production increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, when worldwide shipping disruptions underscored supply-chain vulnerabilities. In recent years, the state has provided support for farm infrastructure, a farm-to-school program and loans for growers who have been denied credit by banks, but farmers still face challenges, including limited access to crop insurance.
Unlike many mainland farms, Hawaii farms are often too small and diversified to afford or qualify for crop insurance, Miyamoto said. Many growers, he added, are immigrants who were “barely eking out a living even before the storms.” Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows the majority of Hawaii farms report less than $10,000 in annual sales. The flooding, along with high winds and power outages, killed or stressed livestock and damaged equipment, vehicles and other infrastructure.
For Kongphan, who is from Thailand, recovery has meant seeking government assistance while working to level earth moved by floodwaters. Balanay said she and other Thai farmers are helping each other navigate the process for federal disaster relief, one-time $1,500 emergency grants and long-term loans from the state, as well as a charitable fund that raised about $850,000 after the floods. Kongphan said the family will keep working his 5-acre (2-hectare) leased plot, growing vegetables he sells at farmers markets, a swap meet and shops and stalls in Honolulu’s Chinatown.
Kongphan also described the physical reality of what remained after the flood. He pointed to a faint, thigh-high line on a plywood wall showing how high the water reached inside a home he built from a shipping container. A donated tent now sits inside, but he said he usually sleeps outside, and he said flies swarmed as he tried to carry a dirt-caked generator he hopes to salvage. Nearby, a Toyota Yaris was covered inside and out in the same dried sludge.
Balanay said she doubts whether she can keep farming after what she saw during the night of the flooding. “Will it happen again?” she asked. When you look at the land and it’s all destroyed, you want to give up,” she said, describing how the water rose to her waist in seconds and wiped out her crops.
The flooding is the latest crisis for Hawaii’s farmers, coming on top of wildfires, pests and volcanic tephra, ash and debris ejected by an erupting Big Island volcano, said Sharon Hurd. Hurd said the state is focused on restarting production quickly, saying “These are the farms that we really need to get started again,” and adding, “We cannot have them give up.”
Officials have been conducting tests to assure farmers that their soil is safe and have been providing seeds and plant starts, Hurd said. Still, some farmers have had trouble even reaching markets, a key income source, while others say what they can sell is limited.
Farmer Kula Uliʻi said her family has been able to bring only about one-quarter of its usual output to weekend markets. Instead of 200 pounds (90.7 kilograms) of tomatoes, she said they might sell 60 pounds (27.2 kilograms). Uliʻi said the family lost starts that were scheduled to be planted this month and now faces months of limited harvest, and she said she is unsure about the status of grocery store contracts because her farm can’t meet demand. She also said even taro, which thrives in water, was lost after being submerged in contaminants carried by the floods. “It’s all gone,” Uliʻi said. “We can’t use any of it.”