A ranch, a sugar cane plantation owner and a wealthy investor trying to start a dairy farm have received state tax credits under a program that rewards preservation of privately owned farmland in Hawaii.

The three entities — Parker Ranch, Alexander & Baldwin Inc. and Pierre Omidyar — acquired $1.5 million in state tax credits for making investments in agricultural operations in 2014, according to a recent state Department of Agriculture report to the Legislature.

Parker Ranch also received about $417,000 worth of the same kind of tax credits in 2013, which was the first year anyone claimed such credits.

The tax credits were issued under an incentive package in the state’s “Important Agricultural Lands” program the Legislature created in 2008.

The state allows tax credits for up to 50 percent of the cost of investments made in agricultural operations on quality land that private owners restrict for agricultural use in perpetuity through the state Land Use Commission.

The credits can be claimed over three years, with 25 percent available in the first year, 15 percent in the second year and 10 percent in the third year.

Annual limits cap the total amount of tax credit payments at $1 million per recipient, with maximums of $625,000 in the first year, $250,000 in the second year and $125,000 in the third year.

A total credit payment cap of $7.5 million per year also exists, with credits issued on a first-come, first-served basis.

Omidyar and A&B both got the first-year maximum tax credit — $625,000 each in 2014, according to the Department of Agriculture.

Omidyar, the founder of eBay and a Honolulu resident, is working to help start what aims to become the biggest dairy in the state, Hawaii Dairy Farms on Kauai. He reported spending $3.2 million on the venture, including $1.7 million on water infrastructure, $734,672 on feasibility studies, $605,814 on processing facilities, $89,000 on regulatory expenses and $90,000 on roads or utilities.

The 578 acres of land slated for Hawaii Dairy Farms is leased from an affiliate of Grove Farm Co. that restricted 11,026 acres for agricultural use in 2013.

A&B, which owns Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., reported spending $3 million at HC&S, including $2.3 million on equipment and $701,073 on water infrastructure. HC&S is on 36,000 acres in Central Maui, of which A&B restricted 27,102 acres as important agriculture land in 2009.

A&B plans to close HC&S by the end of this year but is exploring ways to keep the plantation site in productive agriculture.

Parker Ranch received a $250,000 tax credit in 2014. This represented the maximum second-year credit, or 15 percent of $1.7 million in qualified spending the ranch made in 2013, mainly on equipment, water infrastructure and housing.

The Hawaii island ranch also reported spending $395,653 in 2014, including $224,588 on equipment, $102,343 on worker housing and $51,487 on feasibility or regulatory work. However, no tax credit was given on this spending because the maximum was already reached. The island ranch obtained important agricultural land designation for 56,772 acres in 2011.

The important ag land tax credits are part of a package of incentives that also includes a $2.5 million loan guarantee program, expedited farm processing facility permits and permission to have employee housing on prime farmland.

There is also a controversial benefit that allows owners of prime agricultural land to take land equivalent to 15 percent of the acreage protected and convert it for urban or rural use such as housing. So far, though, all landowners that have sought important ag land designation have waived the right to make such conversions.

To date, only two other landowners — Kamehameha Schools and Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii — have obtained important ag land designations besides the three that claimed credits.

Incentives were provided to encourage private landowners to voluntarily protect prime farmland ahead of efforts by each county to identify prime farmland and petition the Land Use Commission to protect it with or without support of the owner.

These county efforts are ongoing and have yet to restrict any land as important ag land. After county recommendations result in land restricted to agriculture, the same benefits including tax credits will be available to the owners of such land.