Food Security of Urban Agricultural Households in the Area of North Bandung, West Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Urban agriculture is crucial in improving food security through the diversity of food produced by urban farmers. However, there have not been many studies that discuss the food security of urban farmers of three types simultaneously, i.e., subsistence, semi-commercial, and commercial. Therefore, this study has the benefit of looking at the food security condition of urban farmer households. This research was conducted in the North Bandung area, West Java, Indonesia. A sequential mixed method was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data to determine the condition of food security in each urban farmer household. A total of 321 households were used as respondents for this study, consisting of 107 subsistence agriculture households, 107 semi-commercial agriculture households, and 107 commercial agriculture households. Our study found that the average calorie adequacy of farmer households in all urban agriculture types (subsistence, semi-commercial, and commercial) was 84.53%. Meanwhile, the proportion of household food expenditure in all urban agriculture averaged 64.78%. In relation to food security, 53.89% of respondents were included in the food-vulnerable category and only 25.86% of the urban farmer households were included in the food-secure category. The highest food security rate was found in commercial urban agriculture households, which reached 28.04%. In general, these data reflect low household food security across all types of urban agriculture. This reality can be caused by various factors, including limited resources, dependence on food purchases, and interference from external parties.