| Small agribusinesses hold great promise for economic development on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Molokai, part of the Tri-isle County of Maui, has the highest concentration of Native Hawaiians-nearly 36%-in the entire State of Hawaii. Over 60% of Molokai residents are Native Hawaiian or part-Native Hawaiian. Maui Community College, with its main campus on the island of Maui, is one of seven community colleges in the University of Hawaii system and the only community college serving the islands of Maui, Molokai, and Lanai. Over 7,800 acres of agricultural land lie in the Hoolehua area adjacent to Maui Community College's Agricultural and Vocational Training Center (The Farm).
Agriculture on Molokai has undergone a major transformation since the closure of pineapple, starting in 1976 and ending in 1983. Molokai once contained the largest pineapple plantation in the world. Over a third of the production occurred on Hawaiian Home Lands in Hoolehua through planting agreements with homesteaders. Pineapple also was the largest employer and controlled over 60% of the jobs on the island with over 900 of the total 1500 island workforce employed at two pineapple plantations. Prior to 1976, pineapple production was Molokai's major economic engine, and covered over 17,000 acres of land on the western half of the island. King Pineapple's dominance and control was felt in all aspects of the economy.
Pineapple production divorced homesteaders from their land by leaving farming to the pineapple companies. Homesteaders took paying jobs and enjoyed supplemental income from the planting agreements. Early attempts by homesteaders to pull their leases out of pineapple in order to farm their own land were thwarted by the pineapple companies, who controlled ocean transport between Molokai and Oahu, preventing fledgling farmers from shipping their products. During pineapple's heyday, 75% of homesteaders worked for the pineapple companies.
With the phase-out of pineapple starting in 1976, unemployment soared. Nearly 30% of Molokai's residents now receive some form of public assistance. After suffering double-digit unemployment for decades, rates as high as 14-16%, Molokai has, in the last six to eight months, seen the unemployment rate dip into single figures. The island rate, however, is still higher than that of the State. More than 25% of the island's residents are below poverty level or below 50% of the state's median family income. Two and a half times as many Native Hawaiian families live below the poverty line as compared to other ethnic groups.
Molokai's current agricultural potential lies in the availability of large tracts of flat agricultural land, especially in the Central Plains, which are relatively unlikely to experience urbanization. The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands is a major landowner in this farming belt where the potential exists to expand coffee and corn production, and grow other crops. Valleys on the east and northeast side of Molokai could also be adapted to wetland taro production. Over 66% of the agricultural homestead lots in Hoolehua are currently not in use. Most of the Homestead farmers today are first generation farmers who are adept at growing things, but lack skills in farm business management.
The Farm, a satellite of the MCC Education Center facility in nearby Kaunakakai, is located in the Molokai Agricultural Park and houses the Cooperative Extension Service Office and Research Demonstration Farm. The site was developed in 1978 as the Federally funded Molokai Institute of Agriculture and was transferred to MCC in 1983. Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian students make up 76% of the Molokai Center's student body. MCC is building a vocational training facility at the Farm and establishing programs to promote the development of small agribusinesses through training in new farm development, farm management, entrepreneurship and business development, cooperative marketing, value-added market development, and trade skills for farm operation and maintenance.
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