The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated damage and economic loss for Hawaii farmers from the August wildfires and wind amounted to $23.1 million.

The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service counted property damage, livestock deaths, the reduction of customers, along with reduced agricultural sales due to destroyed crops and markets and reduced agritourism income between August and December.

Data was collected from 728 producers from Maui County, including the islands of Maui, Lanai and Molokai, as well as part of Hawaii County via questionnaires mailed out in early November followed by phone calls from December to early January.

In all, Maui County farmers incurred $23 million in total losses, while Hawaii County farmers incurred $100,000 in total losses.

The losses included about $8.5 million in property damage, about $5.4 million in crop production damage, about $5.1 million in reduced sales revenue, $3.9 million in reduced agritourism revenue and $75,000 in livestock losses.

Properties damaged by the fires included buildings, vehicles, irrigation equipment, farm machinery, fences and other structures such as water tanks. Livestock losses included cattle, sheep, goats, poultry, honeybee colonies, horses and alpacas.

Producers also reported losing 500 acres of croplands to the wildfires or wind, including bananas, coffee, floriculture, taro, vegetables and other fruits.

An additional 7,850 acres of pasture incurred damage, according to USDA, which did not offer a breakdown of the acres by county to avoid disclosing data for individual operations.

The USDA also did not offer a specific breakdown on losses by crop and county to avoid disclosing data for individual operations.

Producers reported a total of 960 paid workers on Aug. 1, prior to the fires. Of those surveyed, 87% said there were no changes to their number of workers, while 1% said they would reduce between one and four workers.

Another 10% did not know if they would change their number of workers.

When asked about the estimated time for production recovery, the majority said there had been no change, but 8% on Maui County expected it to take one to six months, 7% from seven to 12 months, and 5% from 13 to 24 months.

Another 4% said they did not expect to recover from the wildfires at all.

The state Board of Agriculture in August activated an emergency agricultural loan program to help farmers and ranchers suffering damage, with a maximum loan amount of $350,000 and an interest rate of 3%. Terms of the loans are to be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Those interested in applying should contact the Agricultural Loan Program on Oahu at 808-973-9458 or hdoa.agloan@hawaii.gov. Applicants should provide estimates of losses and photo documentation of damage. The deadline to apply is Feb. 29.

Due to the presidential declaration of Maui County as a primary natural disaster area, the USDA Farm Service Agency is also offering emergency loans for recovery.

These loans can be used to replace equipment or livestock, reorganize a farming operation or refinance certain debts.

The application deadline for these loans is April 10. More information is available at farmers.gov/protection-recovery/disaster-tool.

WILDFIRE DISASTER SURVEY RESULTS

$23.1 million

Estimated total economic loss ($23M Maui County, $100,000 Hawaii island)

$8.5 million

Property damage

$5.4 million

Crop damage

$5.1 million

Reduction in sales revenue

$75,000

Livestock losses

Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service