Corn's top dogs.

Hawaii has developed a national reputation for producing high-quality seed corn. It is also an industry with thin profit margins and lots of competition.

On an island with a landscape as dry and brown as Molokai's, the contrast of thousands of dark, leafy green corn plants swaying in several

"Molokai in January and February is the Silicon Valley of the seed corn industry," boasts Thomas DeCourcy, manager of Holden's Foundation Seeds Inc., from behind the wheel of a Chevy Blazer that has seen better days, if not better road conditions. "I would guess there's a higher concentration of corn breeders here than in the Midwest at that time." The rest of the year, he insists, isn't too shabby either.

What DeCourcy is talking about is the island's 30-plus years developing a national reputation as a haven for seed corn research and development. The industry, which established roots on the Friendly Isle long before expanding to increased acreage on Kauai, Maui and Oahu, is beginning to receive increased attention in light of the continued poor showing of agriculture stalwarts such as sugar and pineapple. There are currently no less than six large national seed companies producing hybrid corn seed in Hawaii, such as Cargill Inc., DeKalb, Novartis and Monsanto, the latter of which purchased Holden's Foundations Seeds in 1997.

According to industry estimates, these companies - as well as a number of other smaller seed companies doing corn seed research in Hawaii - contributed over $20 million to state coffers in 1997. That's double what they spent here only three years ago. Since the industry here is primarily research based, it generates very little income locally for the companies involved. The payoff for the state is in what the seed corn companies spend here to conduct business.

"It's hard to value because these products aren't actually sold," says Robert Osgood, vice president and assistant director of Oahu-based Hawaii Agricultural Research Center (HARC). HARC offers services to smaller seed companies that want to do research here, but can't afford building their own operations in the Islands. "What you've got is an industry that's intellectual in many ways." Still, Osgood believes industry spending here will only grow. "I think we'll be looking at a $35 (million) to $40 million industry by 2000," says Osgood. "Maybe even by now."