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• 2 <br /> • Rehabilitation of our Pahoehoe water system to provide gravity fed irrigation to 9 farms; <br /> • A complete repaving of our main farm road; <br /> • Installation of security measures: boundary survey, perimeter fencing, new gate system; <br /> • Additionally, KS is close to completing a $600,000 post-harvest facility at'Alae that will <br /> support our Pahoehoe farmers. <br /> Our intentions are clear: $1,300,000+invested in agriculture infrastructure shows KS is <br /> committed to agriculture, committed to our communities and committed to sustainability and a <br /> thriving Iglu' for our beneficiaries. <br /> The TMKs that the Committee proposes to re-designate are at the 'base' of our Pahoehoe <br /> ahupua'a. These two parcels are key to providing ongoing infrastructure support to the 650+ <br /> acres of usable agricultural lands mauka of the highway(TMKS 327-002-002, 327-002-010, 327- <br /> 003-022 and 327-003-023). To put this in to the perspective of 10-20 acre farms, these lands <br /> could support 30-60 small farms. <br /> Just one of many critical issues KS (as well as others outside of KS) has identified is the need for <br /> farm-worker housing. The post-sugar era spurred land speculation on former sugar lands, <br /> making it increasingly expensive for farm workers to find reasonably priced housing. As many <br /> know, KS acquired approximately 30,000 acres of former Hamakua Sugar Company land as the <br /> plantation went out of business. Additionally, KS also took back our Hilo lands formerly in sugar <br /> and consciously decided to keep those lands in agricultural production. As recognized by the <br /> Department of Agriculture's 2015 Statewide Agricultural Land Use Baseline: "KS is a long-term <br /> landowner and has not sought to sell any of the lands they acquired in Hamakua in the last 20 <br /> years." This long-term view has enabled KS to commit to agriculture; however, it also requires <br /> KS to anticipate and plan for future support infrastructure to ensure agriculture's success. <br /> In response to the increasing demand for farm-worker housing, KS would like to keep its options <br /> open for developing a pilot agribusiness model that would include clustered farm-worker <br /> housing (and other support infrastructure) as a key component to make it both affordable for <br /> farm workers to find housing and increase their quality of life by making that housing available in <br /> close proximity to their farms. KS is envisioning at some point in the future that Pahoehoe could <br /> be a prime place for a pilot agribusiness model of this kind. Pahoehoe is close to other KS farm <br /> lands,the KS post-harvest facility, and is in close proximity to market, port and other services <br /> that farmers and their families require. To be clear, this 50 acres (or one-tenth of a percent of KS <br /> land in the CDP district)would be a mix of agricultural support facilities as well as productive <br /> agriculture. <br /> The returns that would be realized as part of this pilot project's success would not focus simply <br /> on rents from the farm-worker housing, but it would be more dependent on the value of the KS <br /> land leases,the productivity of our lands at Pahoehoe (and along the coast), and most <br /> importantly the quality of life for our Iahui and community. <br />