Category: Agribusiness Development Corporation

Honolulu Civil Beat –
By T.J. Cuaresma –

Twenty-five years after the agency was created, it’s past time for change.

I wonder how many people visit the website of the Agribusiness Development Corp. as often as I do?

I suspect I belong to a very small community of nerds who scour it in hopes of finding pathways to success for local farmers who are interested in growing food to feed the people of Hawaii. The need is urgent.

But if we are looking to the ADC to show the way, my frequent visits to its website and my reading of the minutes of its meetings tell me that we need to do a much better job of providing signposts for those often obscured and difficult-to-navigate pathways to regenerative farming.

Farmers dreaming of leasing a small plot of land from the ADC have their work cut out for them if they even try to penetrate the corporation’s website as I did. It was an exercise in frustration.

The ADC website recently carried a sign on its homepage announcing that the deadline for applications for available land had been extended to April 27. It sounded promising at first glance, though the extension itself tells us that the ADC likely hadn’t received a large enough pool of applications.

If true, this fact is not surprising. The ordinary farmer cannot — and will not — expend the kind of time and effort I have invested in trying to make sense of the ADC’s inventory of available lands.

For example, while several plots are listed on the ADC website as “available,” there is little to no guidance on the condition of the land and how much of it is actually usable and can be farmed.

How can a small farmer afford to put in an application under those circumstances? Even assuming some farmers are dogged enough to try, they will quickly discover hurdles like tax map key numbers not corresponding to City and County records! If only 392 acres in a 580-acre plot listed as available can be farmed, how does a farmer who is not doing the thorough research that I did know this and reflect that knowledge in his application?

More importantly we should be asking: Why does the ADC not make this information visible up front in the interest of transparency and fairness to our small farmers?

After monitoring the ADC website regularly for weeks now, I noticed the minutes of a Feb. 24 board meeting were posted in early April. The delay in posting is concerning but even more concerning is the fact that the submittals, which are supposed to reflect what transpired at the meeting, do not match up with what was actually on the agenda.

While there is nothing on the agenda about more lands available for lease, the submittals for the meeting actually refer to such lands, with none of the clarity a farmer looking for suitable land would need. Also, the minutes reflect a 45-minute discussion of the recent audit that described the corporation as failing to fulfill its mission despite the special powers and significant resources allocated to it.

Those same minutes reference a motion to have a separate meeting devoted just to addressing the concerns raised in the audit. So far, there is no indication if such a meeting has taken place or when it might take place.

At a time when the ADC is facing serious questions about its failure to live up to its mission of diversifying our agriculture to ensure food self-sufficiency, it is deeply disappointing to note that another member has been added to the ADC board — Glenn Hong, former president of Young Brothers — who brings no experience in agriculture that can be applied to right this ship. Testimony submitted in support of his nomination to the board cited his “decades of experience in the maritime and transportation industry (that) give him unique insight into agricultural issues.”

I don’t question Mr. Hong’s finance and accounting background, but how does this improve how our small farmers are served?

The Hawaii Department of Agriculture states quite clearly: “Agribusiness Development Corporation was formed in 1994 to facilitate and provide direction for the transition of Hawaii’s agriculture industry from a dominance of sugar and pineapple to one composed of a diversity of different crops.”

The farmers of Hawaii, many of whom are still waiting for access to the lands that will allow for this transition have yet to see evidence of real meaningful steps in this direction. They have seen neglect leading to the sprouting of criminal enterprises that have led to loss of life that could have been prevented with better security and management of ADC-controlled lands.

Twenty-five years is a long time to wait. It’s past time for change.

US News and World Report –

A bill in the Hawaii Legislature would disband the state’s Agribusiness Development Corporation and transfer its resources to the state Department of Agriculture.

The state’s House Finance Committee unanimously advanced the bill Thursday that would abolish the agency.

The state created the agency in 1994 to help convert former pineapple and sugar plantation land into economically viable farms that would produce a broad range of products. The agency owns and manages 23,000 acres (9,300 hectares) of land and irrigation systems, mostly on Kauai and Oahu. It also has a small property on Hawaii Island.

The state’s House Agriculture Committee had advanced the measure earlier with a 7-1 vote last month, Hawaii Public Radio reported.

A recent state audit concluded the agency was “ill-equipped and struggling” to effectively manage its lands and had done little to fill the economic void left by the decline of the state’s commercial pineapple and sugar producing sectors.

The audit said the agency allowed tenants to occupy properties without approved leases or other agreements and turned a blind eye to criminal activity on its lands. It also found the agency had inconsistent and incomplete record-keeping.

The audit recommended that the agency develop written policies for board oversight, property management and managing files and documents. It also said the agency should create an electronic database of the agency’s lands and create strategic plans to grow and export products from Hawaii.

Fletcher Parker, a farmer, said the agency’s water and land on Kauai have been mismanaged.

“The fact that we have between 85-90% of our food on the island imported from off island is baffling to me,” Parker said in written testimony. “The land needs to be managed properly and resources need to be used for feeding the people of Kauai and possibly the other islands as well.”

Jimmy Nakatani, the head of the corporation, said the agency has made some of the changes that were recommended in the state audit. He called the bill “drastic” and “unwarranted.”

Other opponents of the bill include the state Department of Agriculture, the Hawaii Farm Bureau and a farm co-op that manages land on Kauai land for the corporation.

State Department of Agriculture Director Phyllis Shimabukuro-Geiser said the corporation, known as ADC, could convert fallow, plantation-era farmland faster and more efficiently than her department could, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported. She said long-term management of land and water assets would be better suited for her agency.

“The Department believes that the ADC continues to have an important role in the growth and development of diversified agriculture in Hawaii,” she said in written testimony.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Andrew Gomes,

A state agency with special powers to expand diversified agriculture could be nearing a brink of perhaps its biggest accomplishment in 27 years, or disbandment.

The Agribusiness Development Corp. hasn’t been a terribly active agency for most of its existence despite lofty expectations of lawmakers who created the entity in 1994 partly to improve infrastructure of closed sugar and pineapple plantations for new diversified farming endeavors.

This year the agency, which owns irrigation ditch systems on Oahu and Kauai along with 22, 535 acres of farmland mainly on the same islands, has come under fire at the Legislature following a searing performance audit published last month.

On Thursday the House Finance Committee unanimously passed House Bill 1271, which would abolish ADC and transfer its staff to the state Department of Agriculture with the exception of ADC boss Jimmy Nakatani, a former watercress farmer who once led the Department of Agriculture.

HB 1271 has elicited a bumper crop of testimony—197 pages submitted for a Feb. 17 hearing by the House Agriculture Committee, which advanced the measure in a 7-1 vote.

Most testifiers endorsed abolishing ADC, which can issue bonds to acquire land and invest in agricultural enterprises.

Support for the bill outweighed opposition by a 5-1 margin.

Many bill supporters argued that ADC has mismanaged its roughly 18, 000 acres on Kauai by largely leasing the land to seed corn companies, which employ genetic modification technology, instead of more food producers.

“The ADC with so much power and so much control over all this aina has failed, ” Josh Mori, a Kauai organic vegetable farmer, said in written testimony. “They have failed our communities by supporting the companies that have poisoned our waterways and poisoned our air.”

Some ADC critics also cited the audit and litigation over stormwater runoff on Kauai that ADC contends was due to shifting Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

Kauai farmer Fletcher Parker said water and land on the Garden Isle have been poisoned under ADC management.

“The fact that we have between 85 %-90 % of our food on the island imported from off island is baffling to me, ” Parker said in written testimony. “The land needs to be managed properly and resources need to be used for feeding the people of Kauai and possibly the other islands as well.”

Opponents of the bill include the Department of Agriculture, the Hawaii Farm Bureau and a farm co-op that manages the Kauai land for ADC.

Department of Agriculture Director Phyllis Shima ­bu ­kuro-Geiser said ADC can convert fallow plantation-era farmland faster and more effectively than her department but that long-term management of land and water assets would be better suited to her agency.

“The Department believes that the ADC continues to have an important role in the growth and development of diversified agriculture in Hawaii, ” she said in written testimony.

Umi Martin, a tropical fruit farmer leasing ADC land on Kauai, said in written testimony that abolishing ADC won’t result in better public farmland management or allow more farmers to use such land faster.

Martin, a Native Hawaiian born and raised on Kauai, said that after ADC received the Kauai lands in the early 2000s in the wake of Kekaha and Lihue sugar plantation closures, seed companies moved in because there was no demand from diversified farmers.

Martin added that ADC isn’t perfect, but he said the agency can serve the growing diversified farming community in emerging opportunities.

“Abolishing ADC will stop the momentum and we will find ourselves even more frustrated with the lack of progress, ” he said.

Some of this momentum began building between 2012 and 2018 when ADC acquired, at the direction of the Legislature, 3, 848 acres of Oahu farmland mostly once used for Del Monte and Dole pineapple production near Wahiawa.

Nakatani told the House Agriculture Committee at a special briefing Friday that ADC has been working to develop irrigation infrastructure, including wells and reservoirs along with roads and other things, to allow more diversified farming on the land.

A few farmers, including big local diversified farm operator Larry Jefts, use about half the land and have produced crops in recent years with limited water.

Nakatani said another 1, 200 acres should be ready this spring for farmers who can apply under a process that ranks applications based on criteria including business plans and experience.

Another ADC plan is to develop a crop-processing facility, research greenhouse, storage warehouse, office space, worker housing, farmers market and visitors center on 34 acres near Wahiawa to support diversified farm tenants.

ADC also is preparing 1, 500 acres on Kauai for diversified farm use in the next one to three years, Nakatani told the committee.

Nakatani acknowledged that ADC, which he has led since 2013, has operational issues brought into glaring light by the audit, though he disagreed with the report’s conclusion that ADC has done little to fill a void left by plantations.

ADC deficiencies cited in the 56-page report by state Auditor Les Kondo included a lack of statutorily required market research, no meaningful agribusiness plan, informal tenant arrangements, state procurement rule violations, records in disarray and poor board oversight.

“After almost 30 years, we found that ADC has done little—if anything—to facilitate the development of agricultural enter ­prises, ” the audit said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the necessity for a strong and diversified agriculture sector, one that could provide for much of the state’s food needs while producing crops for export. Unfortunately, thanks in part to ADC’s past inaction and its continued lack of direction, focus, and competence, this dream remains as elusive as it was nearly 30 years ago.”

Kondo’s report said Jefts has done site work benefiting ADC in return for rent credit without any paperwork, and that ADC ignored a car chop-shop operation established on the Wahiawa property before the agency’s acquisition.

The audit also said a separate financial audit was called off because ADC hasn’t kept financial records since its inception.

In a formal response to a draft of the audit, ADC didn’t dispute many issues, but said the audit reflects a rudimentary understanding of what it takes to expand commercial agriculture in Hawaii. ADC’s response did refute the auditor’s contention that ADC ignored criminal activity.

ADC said it has worked with law enforcement to root out the chop shops, chicken fighting, over 150 abandoned vehicles, the homeless and drug activities on its Wahiawa land.

Ken Nakamura, an ADC staff member, said at Friday’s briefing that criminals in the overgrown fields had heavy equipment to destroy ADC barriers and weapons to threaten eviction efforts.

“We were literally outgunned, ” he said. “It became so dangerous that even the law enforcement officers did not want to go into the area.”

Nakatani said carrying out ADC’s mission has been difficult with a lack of funding and a staff of 11, of which seven are dedicated to a 27-mile system of tunnels, pumps and ditches transporting water from Windward to Leeward Oahu that ADC received in 1999 as its initial enterprise.

“We talk about we want to move agriculture, but not much money is given to agriculture, ” he said.

Nakatani also said ADC will focus on carrying out audit recommendations.

“It’s not like we turn a blind eye to that, ” he said. “We take it seriously. … We’re under pressure to move agriculture, and we’re trying our best to move it.”

If the full House approves HB 1271, the bill would advance to the Senate where a bill is under consideration to have ADC lease at least half its land to local food producers by the beginning of next year.

Hawaii Public Radio –
By Ku`uwehi Hiraishi –

Hawaiʻi legislators are one step closer to dissolving the state’s Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC). The 27-year-old entity was initially created to develop economically viable farms to fill the void created by the closure of plantations. But a recent state audit found the ADC has done little to fill that void.

Hawaiʻi lawmakers established the Agribusiness Development Corporation in 1994 to convert the state’s agricultural infrastructure from plantation-style monocrop production to a more diversified agriculture industry.

Over the years, the ADC secured agreements for 2,000 acres of former plantation lands on Kauaʻi and Oʻahu with growers producing a variety of crops for local consumption. But a recent report by the state auditor found the ADC has done little to fill that void. It criticized the agency for a lack of oversight and in many cases non-existent recordkeeping.

House Bill 1271 would disband the ADC and transfer its resources including four staff and an estimated 20,000 acres of land to the state Department of Agriculture.

Jimmy Nakatani, head of the ADC, argues the agency has already made some changes recommended in the state audit and he says the bill is “drastic” and “unwarranted.”

But Koloa resident Jeri Di Pietro, President of Hawaiʻi SEED, says the failures of A-D-C have meant a lost opportunity for local farmers looking to develop their own agricultural business.

“I have come to know many people who want to farm on Kauaʻi. They want to grow healthy food and there is a whole workforce here on the West Side and on the South Shore,” says Di Pietro, “These people, if they were able to get onto the land, they would avoid having to commute into Līhuʻe and would have jobs there to be able to grow our local food for the island.”

The House Finance Committee unanimously approved House Bill 1271, which will now go before the full House for approval.