[PART I.  GENERAL PROVISIONS]

Revision Note

  Part designation added by revisor pursuant to §23G-15.

     §163D-1  Findings and purpose.  The legislature finds that the downsizing of the sugar and pineapple industries presented an unprecedented opportunity for the conversion of agriculture into a dynamic growth industry.  Within the next decade, the State can use public agricultural lands to enhance the local economy, provide employment opportunities, decrease reliance on imported agricultural products, and provide more sources of locally grown food for residents.  Thousands of acres of agricultural lands and fifty million gallons per day of irrigation water were released by plantations.  The downsizing of the sugar and pineapple industries idled and left vacant a valuable inventory of supporting infrastructure including irrigation systems, roads, drainage systems, processing facilities, workshops, and warehouses that are still largely underutilized.  The challenge to government and business is to continue to conserve and convert the arable lands and their associated production infrastructure in a timely manner into new productive uses.  Aggressive and dynamic leadership can play a critically important role in promoting and developing agricultural enterprises, coordinating industry development, providing industry-wide services, providing marketing assistance, and facilitating investments and coventures in viable enterprises.

     The purpose of this chapter is to create a vehicle and process to make optimal use of agricultural assets for the economic, environmental, and social benefit of the people of Hawaii.  This chapter establishes a public corporation to administer an aggressive and dynamic agribusiness development program.  The purposes of the corporation shall be to support the production of local agricultural products for local consumption in a manner that is economically and environmentally sustainable while continuing to develop commercial exports of locally produced agricultural products.  To further these purposes, the corporation shall coordinate and administer programs to assist agricultural enterprises to facilitate the transition of agricultural infrastructure from plantation operations into other agricultural enterprises, increase local production of agricultural products for local consumption, reduce the State's reliance on imported agricultural products, and increase access to farmland and related infrastructure for small local farmers and cooperatives. [L 1994, c 264, pt of §1; am L 2022, c 219, §2]