"What's it's actually doing to the product itself, our corn is it dries it up," said Dominic Kadooka.

The drought evidence is obvious. Healthy corn is richer in color, fuller in size, sweeter in taste.
For the last month, Kadooka and other Waimanalo farmers have followed the state's request to use twenty percent less water to feed their fields. Low rainfall and the water restrictions are ganging up on growers.

"Normally I plant two acres a week," Kadooka said. "It may come to the point where I'll have to plant one acre a week."

The corn farm's reservoir is full but the water level in the Waimanalo reservoir that feeds it has fallen a foot in thirty days.

At the National Weather Service, hydrologist Kevin Kodama said winter rains weren't nearly enough to refill the water table.

"The tap kind of dried out and we're heading into the drier months with less than expected rainfall," he said.

Kadooka has reduced his watering times from two hours to ninety minutes five times a week. As the drought wears on he'll plant fewer fields. It's the only way to survive.

"My biggest fear is complete cutback. That means no water," he said.

The state imposed that restriction on irrigation water four years ago. For two months the corn farm was bone dry and the crops dried up.

Kadooka doesn't want to see that happen again but it's a real possibility.

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