Novia D. Rulistia, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 04/13/2011
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| Green fingers: Members of the Jakarta Berkebun (Gardening for Jakarta) group pose after harvesting water cress at the Springhill Golf Residence in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta. The group promotes farming and gardening for middle-class Jakartans during weekends. JP/Nurhayati |
Rapid urbanization has effectively separated people from the food they consume, which results in a majority of people in big cities being unfamiliar with how their food is grown.
A small group in Jakarta, however, has been trying to reverse this trend and decided to grow its own food. Armed with scraps of borrowed land and little knowledge about farming, these people are trying to do almost the impossible: become urban farmers.
One such hopeful is Radix Hidayat, a member of Jakarta Berkebun (Gardening for Jakarta) community.
At first, he just wanted to know what it was like to grow his own food.
“It turned out to be fun, farming in the midst of the jungle of buildings. And now I know a little about planting seeds and harvesting,” he said.
Last week, Radix joined other members of the community to harvest water spinach grown on a plot of land lent by the Springhill Golf Residence in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.
It was a mild success, with members harvesting only the water spinach, but they took it as a job well-done considering the fact that the community started only in October last year and relied mostly on micro-blogging site Twitter as its means of communication.
Early on, the community stated its mission clearly that the objective was to encourage people to grow their own vegetables and fruit in their own yards and support the idea of turning every empty scrap of land into green space.
Jakarta Berkebun chairperson Milly Ratudian Pontoh said the community took off after it secured a three-year lease of 10,800 square meters of land at the Springhill Golf Residence for free.
“When we first came there, twenty of us, all of our ideas and plans that we laid out in our first meeting seemed ill-suited,” she said.
Milly said the land was full of litter, and they would soon run out of ideas of how to turn it into farmland.
Eventually, the community members had to learn from a pro. “People in the neighborhood finally lent a hand. They showed us how to dig the land,” she said. These locals even came to helped them on a daily basis to water the plants
And with the help of a community member who knew about agriculture, Jakarta Berkebun could finally make it through the harvesting season.
During the harvest on Sunday, members of the community decided to give away the water spinach to the locals who had diligently watered the plants.
As for the members of Jakarta Berkebun, they relished their chores of sharing tips on gardening through the Twitter account, @JktBerkebun, and the Jakarta Berkebun account on Facebook.
Members only meet on Sundays at the Springhill Golf Residence to plant seeds and water them, and they are more than happy to have the weekly labor.
“Here I can apply the knowledge of agriculture from school into practice. Also, I can learn about organic farming,” community member Sigit Kusumawijaya said.
More than anything else, Jakarta Berkebun could become an alternative weekend pastime for its members rather than going to malls in the city.
Now, people in other cities such as Bandung and Surabaya have caught the bug of weekend farming. Inspired by Jakarta Berkebun, they have set up their own urban farming communities.
In Bandung, members have leased a plot of land and started planting seeds. In Jakarta, the community has also expanded.
Members will soon be able to start their weekend farming on land secured in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, and the prime location in Mega Kuningan.
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| Michelle Obama takes part in the third planting of the White House kitchen garden with local children on Wednesday. Photograph: AP |
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