Farmers whose land leases are set to expire within the next 15 years will be able to apply for extensions under a bill passed last week by the state Legislature.
House Bill 1705 would allow more than 75 farmers on Big Island agricultural parks to keep their farms as a wave of lease expirations looms on the horizon.
“We’re trying to get ahead of the rush,” said state Rep. Chris Todd (D-Hilo, Keaukaha, Pana‘ewa, Waiakea), a co-introducer of the bill, adding that all but eight leases in the Panaewa and Pahoa agricultural parks are set to expire between 2030 and 2037.
The first agricultural park leases on the Big Island were issued in 1975 in Panaewa with 55-year terms, Todd said. But with that deadline approaching, there is currently no way for lessees to extend their leases with the state Department of Agriculture.
“Once you’re an established farm, it’s hard to just move to a different place,” said Panaewa farmer Hugh Willocks, who took over an agricultural park lease in the 1980s.
“Back then, you had to be an established farmer to get a lease,” Willocks said. “My grandpa, he’d been growing mac nuts since the ’40s. Don’t ask me why they gave a lease to an 80-year-old man for 55 years, but they did.”
Willocks said his macadamia nut farm in the agricultural park has been in his family for decades, and he hopes to pass it on to his son. But without a way to maintain the lease, continuing to invest in his farm has seemed pointless.
“We planted our first trees in the ’80s,” Willocks said.“For me to plant new ones now, with the lease expiring in 15 years, there’d be no point in making that investment.”
But with HB 1705 only one signature away from becoming law, that may change.
The bill allows agricultural lot lessees of 25 acres or less whose leases are expiring within 15 years to apply with the DOA for an extension of up to 30 years.
Todd said the process for an extension will be determined by the DOA, but likely will require an appraisal of the land.
However, it will not require further investment in the land, unlike a similar lease extension process for businesses in the Kanoelehua Industrial Area in Hilo.
“The reason for that is, these lots are not as infrastructure-intensive as KIA,” Todd said.
“There’s less of these deteriorating buildings that are assets to the state. And they’re not generating the same amount of revenue, either; these are not millionaires with that kind of capital.”
Of course, Todd added, the DOA is not obligated to grant lease extensions and will determine each application based on the “best interests of the state.”
Gov. David Ige has not indicated whether he will sign the bill.
However, the bill has been broadly popular during its journey through the Legislature — except with the DOA itself, which repeatedly submitted testimony during committee hearings arguing that the bill goes against a department policy that is meant to limit the ability of individual private interests to use public lands indefinitely.
“Unfortunately, there is a pressing need to increase the number of farmers statewide to realistically achieve the level of farming necessary to meet the state’s goals for food security and sustainability,” read a statement by Board of Agriculture Chair Phyllis Shimabukuro-Geiser. “The single most insurmountable hurdle for most new and beginning farmers seeking to start a farm is the lack of available, appropriately sized, and reasonably priced agricultural lands suitable for farming.”
Shimabukuro-Geiser went on to say that there are 243 people statewide on a list of interested farmers seeking to lease DOA-managed lands.
“Potential lessees in this program know upfront that their use of the land cannot exceed 55 years,” Shimabukuro-Geiser said. “By requiring a business plan for new leases, we encourage lessees to rely on sound business practices to plan ahead for the anticipated and known eventual termination and seek alternate lands if continuation or expansion of their farming operations is contemplated, or desired.”
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.