A plan to bring back the city’s now-defunct Agricultural Development Task Force is being sown by some on the Honolulu City Council.

Introduced by Council members Esther Kia‘aina and Andria Tupola, Resolution 243 requests that the prior task force, which ended in 2019, be reconvened in order “to foster the growth and enhancement of agricultural activities on Oahu.”

“The Council seeks to reconvene the task force to ensure that the Council’s policy decisions continue to reflect and incorporate the expertise of relevant agricultural stakeholders and practitioners,” the resolution states.

As drafted, the new resolution could see the Council chair and vice chair jointly designate the members of the new task force, “which shall include at least one task force member with expertise in traditional Native Hawaiian agricultural practices and food systems.”

The potential for Resolution 243 is up for public discussion at Tuesday’s Council Committee on Planning and the Economy meeting.

“Historically, I always believe farmers get short-shrifted,” Kia‘aina told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “A lot of the things are in the forms of loans, for example.”

Instead, she said the task force’s objectives might include investigating how to get more state or federal grant funding and other incentives to local farmers.

“My vision is to make the city a full partner in agricultural development, and I’m hoping to sustain it,” she added. “And in order to sustain it, in my view, I need to demonstrate the moneys that they get helped to bolster their production.”

If renewed, the task force also may be tasked with reviewing areas such as zoning, land use, infrastructure requirements, taxes, data gathering and analysis, food security, institutional purchasing and other demand-­side improvements.

Other areas of focus would include bio-security — to deal with invasive species — as well as economic development, permitting and certifications, the resolution states.

Kia‘aina said the task force would rely heavily on data gathering and analyses of the local agricultural industry — particularly for grant funding.

“For any grant that you apply for, you need to have a strong narrative backed up by data,” she said, “and that’s why it’s so important for us to have critical data for agriculture because in order to bolster it, it just can’t be in the field.”

She noted such data could “show how many farmers there are, what’s the contributions to our economy, what are the major challenges for them.”

“They need money, they need water, they need land,” Kia‘aina said. “They need capacity. Capacity not just for the farmers, but technical know-how for whatever industry they decide to go to — whether it’s big farmers or fruit growers or aquaculture, for example.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “2022 Census of Agriculture” notes the state of Hawaii has 6,569 farms located on 1.05 million acres.

The individual farms range in size from 1 to over 2,000 acres.

Of those Hawaii-based farms, 1,002 were on Oahu, comprising a total of 60,254 acres. The estimated market value for an average farm on the island was pegged at $1.79 million, the census report states.

In 2021, Kia‘aina offered another related resolution.

That one, adopted by Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s administration, offered a $3 million federally funded agricultural grant program for farmers, ranchers and other growers on Oahu.

The funding, from the American Rescue Plan Act State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, was toward a “first phase of the program,” which allocated $1 million for years 2022, 2023 and 2024.

The mayor lauded the program at the time.

“Growing more food locally is absolutely essential to strengthening our local economy,” said Blangiardi in a May 2022 statement. “These grants are vital to our strategy of creating precious sustainable jobs for our small farmers, ranchers, and growers and ensures the money stays in our local communities.”

However, Kia‘aina noted the grant program’s second phase — to include another $8 million — did not occur.

She said the program’s earmarked moneys were “reprogrammed” by the city in order to pay temporary hazard pay — perhaps more than $30 million, according to the Blangiardi administration — to unionized city workers employed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still, she asserted the $3 million grant program was successful. “We had 66 grants that were awarded to various farmers throughout Oahu, up to $50,000,” she said.

The original Agricultural Development Task Force convened Jan. 10, 2005.

The prior task force, allotted up to nine members and met on a semiannual basis, “provided the Council with important policy recommendations regarding key agricultural matters.”

Those matters included “zoning, restricting gentleman farming, re-evaluating requirements for roads and utilities, examining the agricultural tax rate, and developing incentives, and it most recently submitted recommendations regarding the important agricultural land designation and related possible incentives,” the resolution states.

“The members of the agricultural community who served on the task force brought significant industry expertise, knowledge, motivation, and commitment to guide and implement the policy making of the Council,” the resolution states.

The task force has been inactive since 2019.

But although Honolulu fielded its prior agricultural task force, it was unclear even to Kia‘aina whether that group offered or produced any substantial reports to past administrations.

Regardless, Kia‘aina said her proposed task force is different.

“I do know that when I did my resolution I didn’t base it on anything,” she said. “I based it on my own gut instinct that I felt as I was watching during the pandemic. Even when I was not in office, I just felt like the fishermen and the farmers, it was very difficult for them to get any kind of level of funding.”

The Council’s Planning and Economy Committee is expected to discuss Resolution 243 at its 9 a.m. meeting inside City Council Chambers.