It wasn't such a remarkable gullywasher, nothing like the disaster-category flood in Manoa a week earlier. But it was enough to flood the rows of vegetables this Cambodian immigrant had cultivated, killing the plants before a full harvest could begin.

"It came up to the ankle, or knee," he said, indicating the furrows now caked with mud. "Now we wait until it comes dry, lose a lot of money."

Sem and his son, Khlok Sorn, live and work together on a 2 1/2-acre rented parcel, two of several truck farmers in an area owned by Dole Food Co. At least one of the neighboring plots, farmed by another Cambodian family, also was inundated, he said, although Sem pointed to adjacent plots that were slightly elevated and thus were spared.

"There's a lot in the Kahuku area, although they're scattered," Takemoto added. "Laotians, Filipinos, Cambodians ... farming, that's their whole business at home and that's what they naturally pull towards here."

Crop loss is hard for any farmer, but the pain may feel particularly acute to these immigrants, he said, and not only because their profit margin is so razor thin.

"They don't know what kind of resources are out there that they can seek assistance, or because of their language barrier they don't seek assistance," he said.

"There's a cultural difference as well," Takemoto said. "In Asia, I think they tend to shy away from the government, and with that shyness they don't want to seek help."

Finally, he said, most lenders want to see a farm business' books before making a loan, and many of the immigrant farmers deal in cash and don't have business plans or keep records.

"It's a difficult situation," Takemoto added. "We need to reach out to them and say, 'How can we help you folks?' "

The resources that do exist include low-interest agricultural loans offered by the state, but to qualify for them, a farmer would need to be turned down by two commercial lenders first, said Dean Matsukawa, who heads the loan division of the state Department of Agriculture.

Loans also are available from immigrant service agencies such as the Pacific Gateway Center.

Joy Barua, the center's project director and business manager, said that when the center learns of problems on farms, it will dispatch a case manager who speaks the farmer's language and determine what help is needed.

Sometimes, he said, that means technical advice on how to minimize damage, and other times it's information on how to apply for a loan.

Another relief option: the center's "individual development accounts" that give the business owner an incentive to save. For every dollar the account holder deposits, the program will deposit $2, Barua said.

Some immigrant farmers lease their lots in a state-owned "agricultural park." On O'ahu, these are located in Kahuku, Waimanalo, Wai'anae and Kalaeloa, said Randy Teruya, the state's agricultural asset manager.

Through these parks, the state tries to avert crop loss by requiring the farmers to participate in soil-conservation planning, working cooperatively with neighboring farmers to devise ways of diverting rain runoff away from crops, Teruya said.

None of this will help Sem and Sorn, who have learned the hard way and now have to salvage what they can of their tomatoes, long beans, se que (bitter melon) and eggplant. At most, they said, they might be able to sell only about a quarter of the normal yield.

"It's so hard to make money," Sorn said, shaking his head.