New Hawaii ag park aims to let Kauaʻi farmers ‘just focus on farming’
[April 26, 2025] By
THOMAS HEATON/Honolulu Civil Beat
Tools, greenhouses, customers and, most importantly, land and water —
these are basic needs sorely lacking for farmers in Hawaiʻi. So a
nonprofit on Kauaʻi is stepping up to fill the void by developing an
agricultural park it hopes will help farmers grow and sell more food
locally.
The Olohena ʻĀina Center project is in the beginning stages, but local
group Mālama Kauaʻi has acquired 87 acres of arable land near Kapaʻa and
begun accepting applications from potential tenants.
The center still faces hurdles before opening, including one that has
stalled many agricultural endeavors across the islands: the need for a
reliable water source and irrigation to deliver it.
High rents, insufficient and inconsistent water sources, inappropriate
land and short lease terms are among the issues standing in the way of
greater local food production in Hawaiʻi, which imports up to 90% of its
food. After the harvest, produce needs to be cleaned, packaged and
marketed.
The privately run park will be East Kauaʻi’s first, joining two others
on the island, offering tenants a list of resources many cannot
otherwise access.
The Olohena ʻĀina Center will be built and opened over three phases,
eventually sporting a 1-acre hub facility that includes access to
greenhouse space, business and meeting spaces, cold storage and basic
processing facilities.
The park will also host a 4-acre Noah’s Arc-style orchard of myriad food
trees planted in pairs, Mālama Kauaʻi Executive Director Megan Fox said,
which will be cultivated and propagated for community use.
At first, 20 acres will be opened to tenant farmers, followed by another
62 acres in subsequent phases.
The cost of building the park is estimated at $3 million, Fox said. But
pending design and engineering work will determine the final tally.
The agricultural park model is not new to Hawaiʻi, with a handful of
privately run parks across the islands. The state Department of
Agriculture has also run a program for decades that includes 227 lots
spanning more than 3,000 acres statewide.
But finding a space has been an issue for farmers who have complained
for years that getting state ag park leases is too difficult.
Mālama Kauaʻi seeks to provide another more accessible route for smaller
farming operations, insulating them from the many pain points within
Hawaiʻi’s food system, Fox said.
“That’s the whole point of an ag park,” Fox said. “You just focus on
farming.”
Water Woes
The park project got a significant boost in February when Mālama Kauaʻi
signed a land lease with My Kapaʻa LLC, which is partly owned by
Honolulu-born singer and actress Bette Midler, paving the way for work
to begin.
Its timeline for development, however, depends on how quickly Mālama
Kauaʻi can get water to the site. Organizers initially had planned to
draw water from the state-owned East Kauaʻi Irrigation System, but the
plantation-era system has fallen into disrepair and the state has
threatened to shut it down.
Water is a pervasive issue for many including ʻĀina Ho’okupu o Kīlauea,
another agricultural park whose expansion plans have been stymied by
deteriorating water infrastructure on the North Shore.
The problem with Kalihiwai Reservoir is almost two decades old but
progress has been slow, according to the nonprofit’s executive director,
Yoshi L’Hote, who is not sold on digging wells and drawing from the
aquifer.
“How many straws can you put in one glass of water? Eventually there’s
not going to be enough water for everybody,” L’Hote said.
To avoid further delay, Mālama Kauaʻi has decided to dig a well, Fox
said, a likely more expensive but faster track to watering the park. It
may take up to nine months just to get a well-digging permit, she said,
let alone find and hire contractors to dig out and build the system.
“Once we have the well, won’t won’t have to rely on the state anymore,”
Fox said. “It’s pretty much our No. 1 priority.”
The organization is funding the project through a mixture of channels,
including Kauaʻi County. The state just rejected its $2 million
application for a grant-in-aid, though Fox said Mālama Kauaʻi would
continue advocating for funding.
The organization has started accepting pitches and applications for less
water-reliant operations to use the land as it works to stand up the
operation. Those pitches could include using rainwater catchment or
running honeybee operations.
No Vacancies
Oʻahu farmer Fung Yang was like many new and emerging farmers who
struggle to find an affordable piece of land to buy or lease.
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 So, in 2009, the portobello mushroom
farmer added his name to the state’s “expressions of interest list”
so he would be notified whenever a vacancy became available.
Many farmers languish on the list though, contending with slow
tenant turnover fueled by high demand and the ability for
leaseholders to transfer their agreements to others. Often, the land
is not what the farmers seek — too small, too big, or on the wrong
island.
But in 2023, 13 years after he signed onto the list, Fung secured a
5-acre plot at the in-demand Waimānalo Agricultural Park. It was not
without some sacrifice.
“You can’t just say ‘Here’s a piece of land,’” said Laura Ediger of
the education program GoFarm. “There are so many things about the
agricultural economy that are not helpful to small and medium
farmers.”
A confluence of factors frustrates the state’s budding farmers,
including an at-times unfair process that favors well-connected or
well-established farmers over the rest.
But the park leases are alluring enough — with long lease terms and
comparatively low rents — for people to wait for years, as Fung did
from 2009 until 2023, during which time he paid comparatively high
rents for month-to-month private lease.
At any given time, the list held by the department could contain
about 250 names, said Brian Kau, administrator of the state’s
Agricultural Resource Management Division that oversees the program.
Registered farmers are notified of vacancies once or twice a year.
If land becomes available, they are then able to bid and apply
anonymously. Applicants must be bona fide farmers and the highest
bid generally wins.
Existing leaseholders are able to transfer ownership of the lease,
sometimes at a price for new tenants, which can be problematic
because it forces new farmers into a “favor-based economy,” Ediger
said.
The state rules were not intended to make the lease transfer process
unfair, Kau said, adding that any value attached to a lease should
be based on the value of the business on the property — not the
state land itself. Ultimately, the Board of Agriculture has final
say on lease transfers.
Hawaiʻi’s Sustainable Food Systems Working Group, formed to address
kinks in local food production and access, is currently looking into
state land lease conditions.
The group, which lawmakers made permanent on Thursday, identified
lease terms as an issue in its first report to lawmakers. It has
since become a key priority for the working group, state food
systems coordinator Amanda Shaw said.
A Hot Commodity
The state last opened a new agricultural park in 2001, in Kahuku on
Oʻahu.
“Could the ag department manage more ag parks? Yes,” Kau said. “Is
there land for more ag parks? Yes. But it’s difficult for the state
to get the rights to the land.”
It’s also proven difficult for the department to secure funding to
fit parks with infrastructure, such as irrigation, which has
happened with the 150-acre Royal Kunia Agricultural Park on Oʻahu.
The state acquired that acreage in 2004 and funded its design in
2006, which took five years to complete. But lawmakers have ignored
the agriculture department’s budget requests over the past decade to
complete the estimated $25 million irrigation work.
Instead, Kau said, the lot is being leased for grazing cattle.
In the meantime, farmers like Fung are left with a yearslong wait to
pay lease rates that can allow their operations to become more
viable.
For Fung, the tenure promised by the state was enough for him to
place the highest bid he could afford.
“I had to put my best foot forward,” Fung said.
He is unwilling to share the amount though for fear of angering
others in the small farm community but said it was more than the
typical $500 per acre vegetable farmers typically pay.
It’s a situation that Mālama Kauaʻi hopes to resolve for its
potential farmers, assessing each based on their basis, Fox said.
The park has already accepted 11 applications for future plots on
the 87-acre property, Fox said, having rejected a few applications
seeking large portions of the park. The organization expects the
application list to get longer as it approaches the end of a
roadshow around East Kaua‘i.
Mālama Kauaʻi has yet to finalize the terms of its leases, but Fox
said the prices will be affordable and terms will be sufficient to
ensure farmers can establish themselves well.
Fund said that even if he’s paying more than others at the O‘ahu
agricultural park, he has no doubts about it being a good agreement
as he sits with 33 years left on his 35-year lease.
“The best deal is now,” he said. “You get to control your destiny.”
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