Olive. Avocado. Mango. Peach. Plum. North Cane.

The street names in Wahiawa reflect the Central Oahu town’s history rooted deeply in agriculture. 

Recent history, however, hasn’t been as fruitful for the community with the disappearance of sugar cane, the fading of pineapple and hit-and-miss endeavors with diversified agriculture. Yet now an effort to reinvigorate farming — and the town itself — appears to be taking root.

The initiative is a multipronged one by the state. It includes making agricultural fields and farm-related industrial and retail sites around Wahiawa available for long-term lease, developing affordable housing for farmworkers and preparing area school kids for jobs and careers in agriculture.

Known as The Whitmore Project, the plan is being implemented by the state Agribusiness Development Corp., or ADC, after pieces were largely aligned by Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz after years of sometimes frustrating work in the Legislature.

"It’s about the town’s economic development," said Dela Cruz (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore-Mililani Mauka). "You have to develop industry."

Dela Cruz, who was born and raised in Wahiawa, said he grew concerned with the possibility that the town would wither after pineapple producer Del Monte Fresh Produce shut down operations in 2006.

Del Monte’s decision cost 551 employees their jobs and put 2,000 acres of prime farmland up for sale.

More recently, Dole Food Co. moved to sell 20,000 acres of largely fallow farmland in Central Oahu and the North Shore.

The Whitmore Project’s foundation was established in 2012 when the state acquired 1,200 acres of the former Del Monte pineapple land from the George Galbraith Trust. The purchase was made possible largely from $13 million in state bond financing, $4.5 million from the Army, $4 million from the city and $500,000 from developer D.R. Horton.

Then last year ADC bought two more properties: a 29,000-square-foot warehouse in Wahiawa’s commercial core from local supermarket chain Tamura’s for $4.3 million, and a 24-acre largely industrial site next to Whitmore Village from Castle & Cooke for $3.3 million.

A fourth land deal is expected to conclude for $4.6 million by the end of this year between ADC and Dole, which is selling 258 acres of mainly farmland along with several Dole buildings including offices and farm equipment garages.

So far, ADC has committed about 400 acres of its farmland for lease to three large local farms: 200 acres to Larry Jefts Farms (also known as Sugarland Farms), 160 acres to Ohana Best and 50 acres to Ho Farms.

ADC, which is improving the soil that was left with high acidity levels from pineapple farming, also has reserved another 200 acres for another dozen or so smaller farmers.

Jimmy Nakatani, ADC’s director, said the agency received 40 to 50 responses to its request for proposals earlier this year to lease the former Galbraith lands. "The interest was very strong," he said.

The balance of the farmland will be made available after boundaries for the large initial farms are established. Some additional irrigation sources will need to be tapped to supply water to the whole site, though Nakatani estimated there is enough water from an existing well to irrigate up to 800 acres of diversified crops.

The industrial sites are also intended for lease so farmers can establish processing facilities that possibly can be shared, making Wahiawa a processing and distribution hub for farms between the North Shore and the Ewa Plain.

"In order for anything to happen it needs to be clustered," Dela Cruz said.

Neil Ho, a principal of Ho Farms, has leased an old Meadow Gold dairy hay plant on the 24-acre industrial site next to Whitmore Village with a plan to renovate the dilapidated warehouse into a $1.7 million processing facility with food safety certification that allows wider distribution of company produce. A retail area that attracts consumers including tourists also is planned.

Ho said the new facility, which he expects to be finished in about 18 months, will handle produce grown by Ho Farms in Kahuku, Ewa and Wahiawa. "It’s a perfect point," he said. "That’s why Dole used it as a hub."

Wahiawa’s position as a central area for agriculture on Oahu was established with the founding of the town in 1898 by farm families from California who named streets after fruits as well as their home state (California Avenue).

James Dole, the founder of Dole Food predecessor Hawaiian Pineapple Co., started his pineapple empire in Wahiawa in 1901 and built a cannery in the town in 1903.

Hawaiian Pineapple largely consolidated what had been 16 dispersed camps for its laborers into Whitmore Village in 1947 with 120 homes, and the town continued as a centerpiece to farming for several more decades.

Then a decline unfolded for plantation agriculture statewide. The last sugar cane plantations disappeared on Oahu in the mid-1990s, followed by a demise in pineapple farming a decade later.

Dole made attempts to diversify into other crops around Wahiawa, but not much took hold to stem the downturn. In recent years the company put about 20,000 acres from Wahiawa to the North Shore up for sale, excluding only about 2,700 acres on which Dole still grows pineapple and 195 acres planted in coffee and cacao.

The future of farming around Wahiawa seemed dim enough three years ago that a University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources research station at nearby Poamoho faced the possibility of being closed after helping farmers for more than 60 years.

UH, though a cooperative extension service, provides farmers with assistance and conducts research to benefit the industry. Through the Whitmore Project the state’s commitment to agriculture around Wahiawa helped reinvigorate the 50-acre Poamoho research station, according to Jari Sugano, an extension agent at the station.

Recent and ongoing research at the station is wide-ranging, though there is also a focus on developing niche crops that can thrive in Wahiawa’s climate and soil, such as tea and blueberries.

An ongoing trial with tea is analyzing different soil acidity levels and how to best grow the plants without pesticide. There are no big tea producers on Oahu, and the crop can be valuable, potentially generating $1 million per acre after five years.

"There’s a lot of money to be made," Sugano said. "There’s a lot of future in agriculture."

Added Dela Cruz, "The potential is so awesome. We could have Helemano blueberries and Wahiawa tea."

The state senator, whose grandfather was a truck driver for Dole, is so driven to see the Whitmore Project succeed that he printed and hung up banner signs at the various sites, including one that reads "Whitmore Annex" on the former Tamura’s warehouse that Dela Cruz envisions as a distribution and retail operation.

A sign outside the nearby 24-acre, largely industrial property proclaims it as the "Future Home of the Whitmore Agribusiness Tech Park."

Besides the banners, Dela Cruz has tried to elevate interest in and support for the project by leading about 20 tours of the different sites for various groups including school educators, state agencies and others.

Bryan Pang, a resource teacher for the state Department of Education’s Leilehua Complex of 11 public schools, was excited by a recent tour.

"This is big," he said. "This is huge. This is our kids’ future."

To be sure, realizing all the pieces of the Whitmore Project vision will be challenging, as it is largely up to ADC and other agencies to implement.

For instance, the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp., a state agency that facilitates affordable-housing production, owns 2.6 acres of vacant residential-zoned land next to the Kemoo by the Lake condominium on the edge of Lake Wilson. The site is identified for farmworker housing as part of the Whitmore Project and could be developed with up to 160 residences under state affordable-housing rules. However, the property lacks water and sewer capacity.

HHFDC signed a memorandum of understanding last year with ADC to explore housing for farmworkers on the site.

Affordable housing will be a valuable resource if farming is to take off as envisioned in Wahiawa. For the Ho Farms expansion alone, the company anticipates hiring 40 workers.

"It would help a lot," Ho said of more affordable housing.

Another element of the Whitmore Project is establishing a foreign trade zone where farmers could import and store supplies and equipment without paying customs duties until they remove the items for use.

Dela Cruz also wants to greatly expand the amount of state-owned land around Wahiawa leased to farmers so that there is enough critical mass to support related industries like processing.

"We’re going to need more than 1,200 acres," he said. "We need every bit of land."

For the past two years, Dela Cruz unsuccessfully introduced bills at the Legislature to acquire the 20,000 acres of Dole land through a purchase or land swap. Next year Dela Cruz will try again, saying it needs to be done before the opportunity is lost.

"There’s a sense of urgency that people don’t get," he said, noting that private buyers can turn Dole parcels into residential estates with little farming under lax state and county regulations governing development of homes on farmland.

Nakatani said acquiring all the Dole land on the market is something the state shouldn’t pass up. "I think it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," he said. "In Hawaii there’s no losing when you buy land. It’s just how much is it going to cost us. It’s just a matter of political will and resources."

If the Whitmore Project succeeds, Nakatani believes it could serve as a model for other rural communities, especially on the neighbor islands, where farming has largely disappeared. "It’s a great project," he said.

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