Urban agriculture, food security, and development policies in Jakarta: A case study of farming communities at Kalideres – Cengkareng district, West Jakarta

Abstract

Currently, while urban agriculture occupies approximately 21% of total green space area in Jakarta, its potential contribution towards the city’s food security has not been acknowledged or realised by the government. This is evident from several issues raised within the local context, most notably government policies that lead to insecure land title and tenure for many farmers. The current approach to urban agriculture land use policy puts diverse production strategies all under the broad umbrella of urban agriculture, which ranges from community gardens, urban farms, edible school gardens; this singular one-size-fits-all policy is problematic. Thus, we argue that in order for the government to generate policies which support the continuity of diverse urban agriculture practices, there is a need to systematically understand different typologies of urban agriculture across form and function. This paper used a case study of typical undefined urban agriculture fields in Jakarta as the starting point to begin to systematically define diverse typologies of local urban agriculture. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, field observations, and geographic information system (GIS) mapping. The results provide an in-depth characterization of one typology of urban agriculture in Jakarta, summarised as medium to highly commercialised domestically run small and medium scale farms, located primarily on private land, producing vegetables and livestock for local markets within the city. The farmers were a mix of locals and migrants of informal tenure status, who were highly dependent on their farms for income generation and household food security. We conclude with suggested strategies for policy improvement to accommodate diverse urban agriculture typologies. The case of Jakarta provides a proof of concept, and serves as a reference for other metropolitan areas in developing countries to develop policies to accommodate urban agriculture practices across a broad spectrum of typologies, particularly as a strategy for meeting urban food security goals.