KAILUA — For Maunawili Valley banana farmer Mark Paikuli-Stride, educating new generations about the value of the traditional ahupua'a system in Hawai'i is the best way to protect and preserve the Islands' agricultural resources.

Each year, he invites students and their parents on to his land to show them why they need to be concerned about farming even if they do not become farmers themselves.

"We have to start securing our food-source areas," Paikuli-Stride said. "Right now, we look to the supermarkets for our water and our food, but in traditional times the ahupua'a was where everything was gathered, and right now our ahupua'a are being depleted and destroyed."

Lanakila Mangauil, 18, of Hamakua on the Big Island, visited the farm this year. He said he farms taro in Waipi'o Valley and can appreciate what Paikuli-Stride is doing.

"We're so connected to the land and that's what kept our nations alive for thousands of year," Mangauil said. "Just in the past few hundred years we've lost it all, and now our people are all suffering and that's because all our land is taken away."

Paikuli-Stride and Aloha 'Aina Health Center are on a mission to protect and preserve agriculture land especially where taro once flourished in places such as Maunawili Valley in Kailua and Luluku in Kane'ohe.

The goal of Aloha 'Aina is to protect the agriculture land in the Kailua ahupua'a, make it productive again and provide food at a price that people can afford, Paikuli-Stride said. He does not want to depend on chemicals and pesticides to grow his food and hopes to grow taro just as the ancient Hawaiians did, he said.

"We can't go back to that way of life but we can understand the tradition, the way they cared for the land, and do what we can to preserve it," he said.

LESSONS IN THE MUD

A significant part of the effort is outreach to schools. One school, Ke Kula 'O Samuel M. Kamakau charter school in Kailua, has added the farm to its curriculum. Students there have visited his three-acre Maunawili Farm for several years and combine the experience with math, science, history and writing lessons, said Kamakau teacher Meahilahila Kelling.

At least twice a month students from her kindergarten class have visited Paikuli-Stride's farm to work in a taro patch, planting, weeding and harvesting.

Students from kindergarten through 12th grade visit the farm, and several times a year Paikuli-Stride comes to the school to teach parents and children how to make poi.

"The kids just love it, getting in the mud and feeling it squish between their toes," Kelling said of the farm visits, adding that they also learn responsibility and stewardship, which is the goal of the program called Malama 'Aina.

"It gives them the sense of ownership and they learn about sustainability, how to plant their own food," she said.

Kelling said she sees the benefits of having the children go out to the farm rather than learning only from a book.

"It excites me and inspires me to do more when I see their reaction and them just getting dirty," Kelling said.

DECLINE IN FARMING

Educating young people is one way to protect important agriculture land, said Alan Takemoto, executive director for the Hawai'i Farm Bureau Federation. This year, the bureau was a strong backer of a bill, which Gov. Linda Lingle recently signed, that allows the counties and the state to identify "prime" agriculture land and to offer incentives to keep those lands in production, Takemoto said.

Between 1997 and 2002, the amount of land farmed in Hawai'i dropped 10 percent as sugar cane acres were left fallow or were developed for nonagriculture use. Nationally, farm land acreage fell nearly 2 percent, according to an agriculture census released last year.

"Educating our children is where we have to put our focus. Not only educate them on the importance of farm land but also on the importance of agriculture in Hawai'i," Takemoto said. He added that the bureau also is initiating a program in the schools to promote farming and he appreciates Paikuli-Stride's efforts.

"In addition to just doing his own farming and trying to make a living, he also sees the value of educating the children," he said.

Paikuli-Stride wants to expand the reach of his program to all schools in the Kailua ahupua'a.

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

Last month, Paikuli-Stride hosted a cultural exchange between Native American and Native Hawaiian youths at his Maunawili farm. The boys, ages 15 to 18, worked the land, shared their cultures and learned from each other, said Jonathon Freeman, exchange program director for the Native Youth Cultural Exchange.

The boys met community leaders to see how they work for the good of their people and the land, Freeman said.

"And that sparks interest and sparks that inspiration to say, 'OK what's at my house that needs to get done, and why should I wait for anyone else to do it?' " he said.