Hawaii Island’s staple food crop production is dominated by smallholder farms, which face a variety of challenges such as high input costs, labor shortages, and limited access to water and land. According to the USDA NASS 2022 Census, crops like avocados and bananas have seen a decline in production acreage over the past decade, with avocado-bearing acres decreasing from 454 in 2017 to 344 in 2022, and bananas from 472 to 357 acres. This decline suggests potential barriers such as labor availability, disease pressures, and reduced market demand affecting production capacity. In contrast, crops like mangoes and lychees have seen growth, indicating that some sectors within the fruit category are expanding despite broader challenges in the system. For instance, mango-bearing acres increased from 76 in 2012 to 132 in 2022.
Production challenges are compounded by Hawaii’s geographic isolation and reliance on imported inputs, which drives up costs for fertilizers, seeds, and other essential resources. Local initiatives aimed at developing community-based input supply chains, such as seed banks or cooperative purchasing, could help reduce these costs and improve resilience. Additionally, the data shows a fragmented distribution of technical assistance to producers, limiting the adoption of modern agricultural practices. Integrating traditional Hawaiian agricultural knowledge with modern techniques could provide a unique opportunity to boost productivity while maintaining cultural sustainability. Moreover, ongoing efforts to diversify crops and promote new value chains (e.g., lychee and longan) present growth opportunities but require targeted interventions to overcome the challenges of input scarcity and labor availability.