By COLIN M. STEWART
Tribune-Herald staff writer
“Farming will never be the same once you have CBB.”
That was the warning issued Monday night by Kona Extension Agent Andrea Kawabata to East Hawaii coffee growers concerning the coffee berry borer — the destructive pest whose presence on the windward side of the island was discovered in October.
A handful of coffee farmers heard from entomologists and other experts at a meeting at Hilo Coffee Mill in Mountain View designed to make them aware of the methods for slowing the advance of the destructive pest, as well as how to manage the berry borer once it is entrenched in their fields.
The beetle, a native of Africa, has earned a reputation as the single most destructive pest of coffee crops around the world, lowering coffee crop yields and infesting up to nearly 100 percent of coffee cherries in some areas.
The coffee berry borer was first found on Hawaii Island in the Kona area in August 2010. Since then, the it has quickly spread around the island, being found in Ka‘u in May 2011, Hawi in May 2013, and North Hilo in October.
Kawabata said the bug is not a strong flier, but can move quickly by hitching rides on strong winds, or even on the clothing, boots, vehicles, and burlap bags used by farmers.
“Human-aided movement is probably the biggest problem,” she said. “… That’s why we always tell farmers that it’s important to remind visitors, guests, workers and other personnel coming from CBB-infested areas to change into clean clothing, footwear, hats, etc., before visiting a CBB-free coffee farm.”
Most recently, said entomologist Rob Curtiss, scientists confirmed in November that the coffee berry borer had been found further north along the east coast of the island.
“We just got the results back recently, but it looks like CBB is in Waipio Valley now,” he said.
The area is not known for being a coffee producing region of the island, but there are still plenty of wild — or feral — coffee trees that are harvested by residents in the valley, he said.
Jeanette Baysa, owner of the Hilo Coffee Mill, helped organize and host Monday’s meeting, and told attendees that her goals included helping other coffee growers dodge the berry borer, while also looking after her own interests.
“Right now, we don’t have it (coffee berry borer) yet, and we want to keep it that way,” she said. “But because we are a processor and process other growers’ coffee for them, we’re at the highest risk. I risk my farm every time I process for another farmer, and I need to keep that risk low.”
Hilo Coffee Mill is the largest processor on the east side of the island, but also grows coffee on its 24-acre plot on Mountain View, making its own coffee operation highly susceptible to infestation due to human-aided movement of the pest, she explained.
Among the many facts about the beetle presented at the meeting, perhaps the most sobering was a look at its reproductive cycle. A single female can lay 33-100 eggs within a month’s time, and as each of those eggs matures and goes on to reproduce, the amount of beetles hatched within just a few short months can grow exponentially. Within five months, a single coffee berry borer can lead to 24.3 billion.
That number takes on special significance when one considers that the beetle has no natural enemies on the island, Curtiss said, meaning that its population is limited only by the amount of food available.
“The more coffee cherry you have, the more CBB you’re likely to get,” he said.
Kawabata explained that experts have compiled an Integrated Pest Management system for coffee growers to follow once they find the beetle on their property. It contains a variety of methods which work better when they are all used in conjunction, she said.
“That’s because there is no silver bullet for the coffee berry borer,” she said.
The full pest management system, including tips on field sanitation, field monitoring, pesticide application and harvesting, can be found on the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources’ website, http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/site/cbb.aspx.
Among those in attendance Monday night was Mountain View farmer Josh Coleman, who just started his business, Coleman Farms Hawaii, with his wife about a year ago. He said that while some of the information shared on coffee berry borer was worrisome, it’s not scaring him away from his plan to diversify his agricultural products following organic farming and sustainable permaculture models.
“We’re just learning to keep an eye on what our crops have, focusing on early detection,” he said. “Everybody at the extension office and CTAHR has just been so awesome.”
Ron Baptista operates a small, 1-acre farm in East Hawaii with about 60 trees. Despite the heavy workload involved, he said he’s ready to do what needs to be done to fend off the berry borer.
“We’re gonna do it. We have to,” he said. “We enjoy growing our coffee. We’ve been picking it all this week. … It’s a small operation, but we want to keep doing it.”
For a complete listing of berry borer prevention and control methods, visit CTAHR’s Coffee Berry Borer page at http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/site/cbb.aspx.
Or, visit the Hawaii Department of Agriculture at http://hdoa.hawaii.gov/pi/ppc/coffee-berry-borer-information-page/.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
