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Govt promotes urban farming in cities to tackle climate change, decrease air pollution
The government is calling on local administrations across the archipelago to embark on an urban farming campaign in a bid to fight climate change and improve environmental qualities in cities
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span>The government is calling on local administrations across the archipelago to embark on an urban farming campaign in a bid to fight climate change and improve environmental qualities in cities.
Urban farming could be one solution to the impacts of climate change in cities, the deputy head of the climatology unit of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), Herizal, said.
He said the temperature in most cities in Indonesia had been rising as a result of massive urbanization since the 1980s. Rapid industrial activity in cities has also contributed to high air pollution and emissions, which has increased the temperature.
He said that according to a study conducted by BMKG researcher Siswanto in 2015, Jakarta has warmed up by more than 1 degree Celsius over the past century, worse than the average global trend during the same period.
The World Health Organization estimated that about 7 million people die every year around the globe from illness related to air pollution, such as stroke, heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory infections, as patients are exposed to fine particles in polluted air.
“Urban farming can help to suck up carbon dioxide in the air. Plants release oxygen, so the more urban farming practices, the more oxygen will be released,” Siswanto said at a recent discussion in Jakarta, adding that other measures must also be taken such as vehicle restrictions.
The head of the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s Center for Standards, Noer Adi Wardojo, said the ministry called on local mayors and regents to integrate urban farming into their respective climate change adaption strategies.
The regional administrations, he said, were asked to maintain the existing agricultural projects while also finding more space for agriculture within the cities and their peripheral areas. Urban and peri-urban farming has become a global trend and plays an important part in climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Such efforts, Noer added, were part of the ministry’s climate-friendly neighborhood program called Proklim, which aims to persuade regions to take measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
This is in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement on limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees, to which Indonesia is a party. Indonesia has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions unconditionally by 29 percent and conditionally by 41 percent by 2030.
Between 2015 and 2018, the ministry had presented Proklim awards to 137 out of 1,566 participating local administrations across the country.
“We don’t want urban farming to exist only at the neighborhood level, but also at the city level,” Noer said.
He cited that regions could follow the lead of Surabaya, East Java, which was a benchmark for urban farming practices.
Under Mayor Tri Rismaharini, Surabaya has made urban agriculture viable and durable in the city since its inception in 2010.
She was honored by the United Nations at its headquarters in New York in February for her achievements, notably in food resilience and poverty alleviation in the city.
The urban farming program in the capital city of East Jakarta has engaged various parties, including schools and higher education institutions.
The city administration provides urban farmers with crops, organic fertilizer and agricultural tools. Some products resulting from the activities are sold to hotels, restaurants and neighboring regencies.
Sigit Kusumawijaya, cofounder of Indonesia Berkebun, a community promoting farming and gardening to middle class residents in big cities, said urban farming had been a trend among city dwellers. However, they face challenges as it is difficult to find sizable vacant land, especially in a highly populated city with massive development like Jakarta.
“Until now, the [urban farming] movement has been mostly initiated by the city-born youth. They are willing to farm like their ancestors did, but the land price is too expensive to expand the scale,” he said.
Established in 2010, Indonesia Berkebun helps thousands of urbanites to start farming in major cities such as Jakarta and Banten (das)
