WAIMANALO — Trying to help Hawai'i agriculture evolve from the plantation-era of sugar and pineapple, state House and Senate lawmakers want to spend $12 million to improve five irrigation systems statewide and put $38 million more in a special fund for farmers who want to improve or protect their land.

Many of the state's irrigation systems had been maintained by sugar and pineapple interests but have fallen into disrepair. The new state money, which lawmakers view as a commitment to diversifying agriculture, follows the Legislature's decision last year to create an important agricultural lands designation to identify and preserve land for farming.

Grant Hamachi, a vegetable farmer, said farmers had to live with water restrictions last year when reservoir supplies ran short.

"Water is a very important part of the agriculture industry," he said. "It's not easy getting a reliable source."

Under gray skies and a light drizzle yesterday morning at Nalo Farms, several farmers from across the state joined House and Senate lawmakers at a news conference to announce the proposals.

"This is the first step in the incentive process that we're going to be looking at through 2007 to put more farmers on all of these vacant ag lands that we're going to preserve for them," said Dean Okimoto, the owner of Nalo Farms and president of the Hawai'i Farm Bureau Federation. "Water is just as important as land in this whole deal. So if we get the water to the land, we'll put the farmers on the land and hopefully produce a lot more ag products for the state to make agriculture economically more viable for the state."

House and Senate leaders have included the proposals in the Democrats' majority package of bills for the session, which shows that lawmakers have assigned agriculture a high level of importance. It also indicates that Democrats who control the Legislature will make investing in the state's infrastructure a priority in the debate over spending a projected budget surplus.

Today, House and Senate leaders will release the details of the majority package at Anuenue School in Palolo Valley and discuss the need for school repair and maintenance.

The agricultural proposals would provide $12 million for improvements to the East Kaua'i Irrigation System, the Waimanalo Irrigation System, the Moloka'i Irrigation System, the Waimea Irrigation System, and the lower Hamakua Irrigation System. Ten other irrigation systems have been targeted for future repairs over five years.

An additional $38 million would be pooled in a special fund. Farmers and landowners who designate their land as important agricultural land, essentially protecting it from urban development, would be able to apply for money from the fund for irrigation improvements. Lawmakers also will propose a constitutional amendment so landowners on important agricultural land could qualify for special-purpose revenue bonds to pay for more significant projects.

"We want to give out carrots as incentives for farmers to designate their land as important agricultural land," said state Sen. Russell Kokubun, D-2nd (S. Hilo, Puna, Ka'u), the chairman of the Senate Water, Land and Agriculture Committee.

In a more philosophical proposal, lawmakers want to move more argricultural land and management of state irrigation systems to the state Agribusiness Development Corp., which is attached to the state Department of Agriculture.

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.