Bill would eliminate agribusiness development group

摘要

The state's House Finance Committee unanimously advanced the bill that would abolish the agency.Hawaii created the agency in 1994 to help convert former pineapple and sugar plantation land into economicallyviable farms that would produce a broad range of products. The agency owns and manages 23,000 acres of landand irrigation systems, mostly on Kauai and Oahu. It also has a small property on Hawaii Island.The state's House Agriculture Committee had advanced the measure earlier with a 7-1 vote last month, HawaiiPublic Radio reported.A recent state audit concluded that the agency was "ill-equipped and struggling" to effectively manage its landsand had done little to fill the economic void left by the decline of the state's commercial pineapple- and sugarproducingsectors.