TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsSmall farmers bring Jakarta urban farming to life
Jakarta has designated idle plots of land, including some under the Bekasi-Cawang-Kampung Melayu (Becakayu) toll road in East Jakarta, as urban farming sites in an effort to achieve food security and expand green area coverage in the city.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Urban farmer Hasanuddin, 60, waters a crop of sweet potato on Nov. 9, 2025 in an urban farming site beneath the Bekasi-Cawang-Kampung Melayu (Becakayu) toll road in Makassar district, East Jakarta. The Jakarta administration has designated several idle areas across the city as urban farming sites, allowing surrounding residents to cultivate the land. (JP/Gembong Hanung)
I
n Jakarta’s urbanized society, a handful of small-scale farmers have been turning idle spaces in the city into productive cultivation sites, contributing to much-needed green space where land is at a premium.
One of these farmers is Hasanuddin, 62, who turned a 200-square-meter dead space beneath an elevated toll road in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta, into a small outdoor garden, where he has been planting several food crops since 2021.
Spanning at least 1 kilometer long, he grows a collection of tuber, vegetable and fruit plants, such as lettuce, sweet potato, papaya and melon.
“Last time we had harvest season, we yielded almost 50 kilograms of sweet potatoes and sold them in the market,” Hasanuddin told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
He added he answered the call from the city administration urging local residents to jointly manage idle plots of land across the city. However, only a handful initially showed up.
The Jakarta administration designated idle area under the crowded Bekasi-Cawang-Kampung Melayu (Becakayu) toll road in East Jakarta as an urban farming site. Such a move allows surrounding residents to cultivate small-scale production of fruits and vegetables in an attempt to source food supply locally, while expanding green coverage in the city.
