In the immediate years following the economic crisis of 1997-1998, there is a sudden change is Jakartas urban landscape. Many plots were occupied by farmers, growing quick yielding vegetables and fruits.
As development projects stopped, lands were left vacant. In a very short period these lands, including right-of-ways for delayed toll roads, big chunks of land in citys centres, were planted. Some older sites, such as river banks and railway tracks, suddenly became more dense with edible plants too. In middle-class neighbourhoods, unbuilt plots are rented out for farming. Some people find fresh vegetables suddenly available just in the next block.
Such is an example of urban agriculture (UA) taking place. It is one of the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC)s growing business. It is indeed one of IDRCs most impressive, perhaps even the most useful, applied research. Through out more than 20 years it has systematically been supporting UA and together with it has also been growing persistently in its approach, which is basically knowledge-based interventions. IDRCs pioneering and growing support to urban agriculture is exemplary about how persistent systematic knowledge-based intervention can be useful, instrumental, in mainstreaming innovation, new approach, up to policy advocation.
In WUF III, IDRCs contribution in this field is well presented, albeit a bit lost in the noisy market place of ideas. Through UA, IDRC shows the importance and relevance of research and knowledge in innovative and sustainable urban solutions. In the Forum it brings its different works in different formats: experience-exchange conference, research workshops, showcasing tour, networking sessions, easy-to-understand demonstrations and publishing a book (Luc J.A. Mougeot, Growing Better Cities, Urban Agriculture for Sustainable development, 2006)
Urban Agriculture: a Growing Definition.
Urban agriculture is the growing, processing, and distribution of food and nonfood plant and tree crops and the raising of livestock, directly for the urban marjet, both within and on the fringe of an urban area. It does this through tapping on resources (unused or under-used space, organic waste), services (technical extension, finance, transportation), and products (agrochemicals, tools, vehicled) found in this urban area and, in turn, generates resources (green areas, microclimates, compost), services (catering, recreation, therapy), and products (flowers, poultry, dairy) largely for this urban area (UNDP 1996; Mougeot 2000). 1
The very close connection in space that UA entertains with ecology and economy of cities makes this very distinct but complementary to rural agriculture.
UNDP in 1996 identified over 40 farming systems, ranging from horticulture to aquaculture, kitchen gardens to market gardens, and including livestock as varied as cattle, chickens, snails, and silkworms.
One striking conclusion from developments in UA policy over the last 30 years is that, contrary to common perception, UA is neither the short-lived remnant of rural culture nor a nasty symptom of arrested urban development. The real paradox is that, on the political agenda, UA is far more advanced in the Northern countries than it is in the South (Mougeot, 2006, p. xiv)
From Food Security in Times of Economic Crisis to Resource Recycling and Conservation.
In modern time, the British first formalised urban agriculture with the British Allotments Act, 1925. In Canada there was the War Gardens of Canada, 1924-1947. Their main purpose was to provide food security in times of economic crisis. Today, however, Amsterdam, London, Stockholm, Berlin, St Petersburg, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver have connected urban agriculture with resource recycling and conservation, therapy and recreation, education and safe food provision, community development, green architecture and open space management. In Montreal urban agriculture is already established as a permanent land use of municipal parks. Lisbon pedagogical gardens since 1990s is now visited by more than 100,000 people every year.
Urban agriculture is meant to also reduce a citys ecological footprint. The fact that less food has to be transported to the city from rural areas contributes to sustainability and has a positive environmental impact. It reduces pollution and improve air quality. In developing countries there is no doubt that it aims at adding income and nutrition to poor families, helping to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, which is one of the Millennium Development Goals.
In Jakarta city farming briefly became a hot trend immediately following the economic crisis in 1997-1998. But, although it remains to stay in many public or private unused lands, there has never a policy nor a study/research/public discourse about it. As in many southern cities, it is indeed associated with urban land squatting and is viewed as a socioeconomic problem Authorities are hesitant to be more proactive on UA because it is largely seen as resulting from a failure to address adequately rural development needs. (Mayor Fisho P. Mwale, Lusaka, Zambia). This perfectly reflects Mougeots conclusion that initially In the South, however, those very countries that have the most to gain from policies positive to UA are, by and large, the ones where such policies are less developed.
Growing from Small Seeds to Global Mainstreaming: IDRCs supports to Urban Agricultur:
IDRC supports to urban agriculture has started with small isolated projects, not really linked to public policy process, even though it is the first international organisations that formally recognised it and developed dedicated research programmes on it. The supports have been growing with interactions with UNDPs LIFE programme to include global survey, linkage to local policy, multidisciplinary research conducted by larger institutions. Through its Cities Feeding People (CFP) programme, IDRC became fully engaged in policy-oriented projects with UN-HABITATs Urban Management Programme, and affiliates in Latin America, the Caribbean, And East and Central Africa. It further grew to play a major role in mainstreaming UA at Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in 1999 and funded a global initiative on UA, reaching sub-Saharan Africa, East African Cities.
IDRCs most lasting legacy could be its success in being convener, advocate, and facilitator of partnership for advancing both practice and policy. It encouraged cities to learn from each other, and to form national and regional networks. CFP promoted integration of UA into the urban planning process and built links between research results and development policies that manage the growth of UA.
Its large survey in sub-Saharan Africa in 1980s, became the base for the UNDPs seminal book of 1996, Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobs, and Sustainable Cities. Later IDRC was asked to join UNs policy session (such as FAOs 1999 plenary intervention to adopt a resolution calling for coordination of its programming on peri-urban agriculture). It organised conferences for decision making leaders. In 2000 mayors from Latin America and Carribian in Quito, Equador, convened to sign the famous Quito Declaration. It continues to promote researches and trainings grounded in local realities and local needs, policy intervention, systematic and effective dissemination of its works, support global organisations such as FAO and UNHabitat, support design, testing, and packaging of a wide range of tools that international resource centres, regional research networks, and focal points of expertise are beginning to share with a larger audience.
Urban Agriculture in the World Urban Forum
In the Forum, UA is presented in different engagements and as solutions to different problems. Growing Better Cities on Tuesday 20 June 2006 is a space where local authorities from North and South share their experience in building cleaner, greener, food secure cities. On Wednesday, 21 June 2006, a session called Partnering with the Poor discuss how low-cost housing projects and public/private partnership is coupled with urban farming have empowered poor communities on three continents. On Thursday, 22 June 2006, in a workshop called Cultivating Inclusive Cities, local practitioners of UA share their insights on participatory process to develop sound urban agriculture policies to address growing urban poverty and insecurity. And last but not least, in Growing Cities, Growing Food: Unleashing Urban Farming on Thursday, A new generation of researchers has taken up the cause of promoting farming in the city. They share experiences on how to work with governments to promote urban agriculture as a safe and viable way to reduce hunger, generate employment, and enhance the environment.
To top the UA presence in the Forum, a Tour: Showcasing Vancouvers Urban Agriculture took 40 IDRC partners and staff on a tour of selected urban agriculture sites in the City of Vancouver and will culminate with a locally produced organic lunch.
The IDRC also organised a series of demos in its booth at the Forum. Five of the six lunch-time demos were related to UA: 1) Composting Chef showed how to make compost of kitchen and garden waste; 2) Trendy Trash where someone from an NGO build/construct products from garbage that could have resale value; 3) Sand as effective water filter that demonstrated using sand as a water filter ; and 4) Garden in a box / Garden in a shoe Demonstrate how to build small gardens (in boxes) or in of canvas shoes. (a fun thing for kids); 5) Perma culture designs where landscape architecture students from UBC were asked to participate in competition where they had to come up with creative designs for growing food or plants in small spaces
