urban and periurban vegetable production systems in bandung city, indonesia

8/8/2019 Urban and Periurban Vegetable Production Systems in Bandung City, Indonesia

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URBAN AND PERI-URBAN VEGETABLE PRODUCTION SYSTEMSIN BANDUNG CITY, INDONESIA1

Witono Adiyoga

Research Institute for Vegetables, Jalan Tangkuban Perahu 517 Lembang,Bandung - 40391, West Java, Indonesia

ABSTRACT Anticipating the future vegetable demand pressure which is expected to be especially high inand around urban areas, greater attention has been increasingly put to the improvements of urban and peri-urban production systems. In this context, a study was initiated to characteriseurban and peri-urban vegetable production in Bandung City, West Java, Indonesia.

Opportunities and constraints in growing vegetables in those two production systems arehighlighted. A concerted effort to promote large potentialities and advantages of the urban andperi-urban production systems that can lead to a strong commitment of further developing asustainable vegetable production systems, is undoubtedly needed.

INTRODUCTION

In Indonesia, with a total vegetable production of 7.9 million t in 1996 (on an area of 928,000 ha), vegetable availability is approximately 38 kg/year per person. This per capitaavailability is clearly insufficient to meet the FAO’s nutritional recommendation of 200 g of vegetables per capita per day (65 kg/year). Indonesia is expected to face vegetable demandswhich increasingly exceed supplies (Jansen, 1992). This deficit is likely to become moreserious due to a virtually stagnant supply and the estimated total population growth thatremains at an average of 1.9% per annum until the year of 2000. Hence, if there is nochanges in the supply growth patterns, per capita availability of vegetables in Indonesia maycontinue to decrease.

As estimated by the World Bank, fruit and vegetable consumption in Indonesia willincrease by an average of 3.9% per year during the the period of 1995-2010 (Pasandaran &Hadi, 1994). In general, it is obvious that vegetable production must be increased to remedypresent inadequate availability and to keep pace with the income and population growth. It

should be noted though that the future demand pressure is expected to be especially high inand around urban areas. This expectation is actually supported by the some facts, such as (a)urban communities will expand as rural population seeks higher incomes in the towns andcities - World Bank’s projection indicates that in 2005, urban population will increaseapproximately 37%., (b) high dependence of people in urban areas on market supplies for their food consumption, (c) people in urban areas usually have higher incomes and faster incomegrowth than rural areas. Urban population growth in Indonesia is projected approximately 7.4%per annum, while in rural areas is expected to decrease further at (-) 1.6% per annum.Therefore, per capita vegetable consumption expenditure for urban population is expected four times higher than that of the rural population (van Lieshout, 1992).

1 A paper presented in Sub-Regional Workshop on "Constraints and Opportunities for the Development of Urban

and Peri-urban Horticulture in South-east Asia", 16-19 October 1999, Kunming, Yunnan Province, P.R. China.



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A rapid increase in demand for vegetables within cities creates great demand for adjacent production and supply systems with virtually assured markets. Urban and peri-urbancultivation are not a new concept, rather they have become a permanent part of landscape inmany cities of the world (Sanyal, 1985) and are also considered as a food production strategyto supplement food supply (Ninez, 1984). Dwellers in those areas, especially small-scalecommercial farmers, grow different types of vegetables to meet the increasing demand. Urbanand peri-urban vegetable production systems which are rapidly gaining more attention, supplyfresh perishable vegetables, generate jobs, allow economical use of even small pieces of land,can adjust quickly to market needs, and can recycle urban waste. More importantly, theseproduction systems increase vegetable supply and income for the urban poor.

Because of the high pressure of demand and the high profitability of vegetablecultivation, producers frequently take extraordinary efforts to grow vegetables under difficultconditions (especially due to limited or small farm size). Unfortunately, this often leads to theexcessive use of both fertilizers and pesticides that are frequently perceived by most farmersas risk-reducing inputs. Experience shows that dependency upon, and manipulation of, inputs

and natural resources by producers to maximize returns have led to inherently unstableproduction systems. Back to the idea that developing urban and peri-urban vegetableproduction systems may increase supply and farmers’ income, the concern with regard to thesystem sustainability should always be kept in mind.

The Agency for Agricultural Research and Development (AARD) in Indonesia initiateda research program on the improvement of urban and peri-urban food production systems in1997. Under the direction of this program, Research Institute for Vegetables (RIV) putsemphasis on urban and peri-urban vegetable production systems. Within this context, a studywas initiated to characterize the urban and peri-urban vegetable production systems for Bandung City (capital city of West Java Province), which is considered as the second largestcity (after Jakarta) in Indonesia.

URBAN VEGETABLE PRODUCTION SYSTEM •

In general, urban production system is characterized by: (a) non-commercially-orientedvegetable growers, and (b) commercially-oriented vegetable growers.

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Non-commercial vegetable growers are those who basically cultivate vegetables toimprove family diet and intensify food production at the home level. Tomato, hot pepper,pai-tsai, and lettuce are some of the common vegetables cultivated in urban gardening.Some of the methods used in urban gardening are: (a) pot gardening, (b) box gardening,(c) plastic bag gardening, and (d) front-yard and backyard gardening.

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Urban gardening is usually managed conventionally with a relatively simple technology.Some gardeners are not even used to grow vegetables using inorganic fertilizers andpesticides. Even though home gardening has been advocated in Indonesia for manydecades, field observations indicate that there is still a wide gap between home gardeningadvocacy and actual practice by households. This gap is mainly attributed to lack of garden space and time, especially among urban dwellers.

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Commercial vegetable growers are those who basically cultivate vegetables for the marketas a source of income. Tomato, hot pepper, yard-long bean, kidney bean, eggplant,

cucumber, kangkong, spinach, and lettuce are some of the common vegetables cultivated



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commercially in the urban areas. Farms are small (< 0.2 ha) and only one-tenths of whichare de facto owned. The other 80% of the cultivated land is either rented or sharecropped.

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Multiple-cropping is the most common system used in growing vegetables. Vegetablesare usually cultivated as one component in a rice-based cropping system. Some major

cropping patterns in urban areas are:

J F M A M J J A S O N D

fish rice tomatoes, cucumber, kidney bean fish

Kangkong rice fish

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Even though growing vegetables is more profitable than cultivating other crops, farmersare still consistently following the existing dominant cropping pattern, since vegetables areconsidered as high-cost and high-risk crops. Further observation indicates that the lack of appropriate technology, especially the availability of quality seed, contributes significantlyto the slow development of urban vegetable production system.

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Land shortages because of the demand for land by other urban systems and uncertaintiescaused by the present tenurial arrangements are clearly two important factors that shouldbe carefully considered in deciding the feasibility of further developing the urbanproduction system to increase vegetable supply.

PERI-URBAN VEGETABLE PRODUCTION SYSTEM

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Peri-urban areas under study are basically highland areas. Land holding for about 70%farmers ranges between 0.05 - 0.50 ha. The tenurial status in peri-urban areas is owned(30%), rented (60%), and sharecropped (10%). The number of farmers who cultivateshis/her own land in peri-urban areas is higher than that in urban areas.

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A wide variety of vegetables are grown in peri-urban areas, such as tomato, hot pepper,shallots, snap bean, kidney bean, yard-long bean, bunching onion, cabbage, chinesecabbage, and cauliflower. Different cropping systems, namely, sequential, relay, rowintercropping and mixed cropping are practiced in producing those vegetables. Somemajor cropping patterns in peri-urban areas are:

J F M A M J J A S O N D

fallow corn hot pepper

hot pepper &

shallot tomatoes fallow hot pepper & shallot

kemangi/peas/

eggplant yardlong bean/kidney

bean/paria carrot/tomato/yardlong

bean/corn cauliflower/tomato bunc.

onion



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Returns to vegetable growing exceed those for food crops (rice, corn and soybean), butrisks and capital investments are also considerably higher. Revenue-cost ratios for somevegetables varied from 1.25 to 2.35 per ha (yard-long bean=1.92, shallot=1.25, carrot=2.35, cauliflower=1.84, hot pepper=1.79). These economic efficiency indicators, however,should be interpreted carefully, since they are very sensitive to changes in output price.Major input costs are related to seed, pesticides and fertilizers.

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A relatively sharp increase in input prices, especially fertilizers and pesticides, does notaffect the amount used by farmers. The risk of having a crop failure is perceived to behigher than the lost of spending additional input costs.

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For the last three years, most farmers observe that there is an increase in demand for vegetables. However, this increasing demand is perceived to be insufficient to offset theincome risk, mainly caused by output price fluctuation.

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Observation and further analysis do not suggest the occurrence of excessive fertilizer use.However, the use of fertilizers is still considered inefficient as indicated by relatively wideproductivity differences among farms.

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Intensive observations confirm the excessive use of pesticides at the farmer’s level. Thisis indicated by high frequency of spraying, high dosage and the use of mixed pesticides.Residue analysis also detects pesticide residue on kangkong, hot pepper, cauliflower andtomato that has passed the tolerance threshold.

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Both in urban and peri-urban areas, the three major production constraints emphasized byfarmers are capital/fund availability, output price fluctuation and pest and diseaseincidence.

No Constraints or Problems Rank of Importance

Urban Peri-urban

1. Pest and disease incidence III III

2. Capital/funds availability II I

3. Land availability IV IV

4. Labor availability VIII VI

5. Fertilizer and pesticide availability V V

6. Water/irrigation availability VI VII

7. Soil erosion/fertility IX IX

8. Output price fluctuation I II9 Technical information availability VII VIII

FUTURE DIRECTIONS •

Despite the existing constraints and challenges, there should be a concerted effort topromote large potentialities and advantages of the urban and peri-urban productionsystems in enhancing vegetable supply. This effort can improve knowledge of producers,researchers and policy makers that may lead to a strong commitment, both at the policy

and operational levels, to further develop a sustainable vegetable production systems.



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Current changes from centrally planned system to a decentralized system provide morerooms for formulating policies and strategies in integrating urban and peri-urbanhorticulture into the regional/urban planning process and regional/urban resourcesmanagement. Regionally based development program would be more appropriate toaccommodate special characteristics of urban and peri-urban production systems.

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Research program should be developed in tune with the natural, political andsocioeconomic environments that affect researchers, research clients, producers, andconsumers. Improved technologies must not only be able to push back the margins of crop cultivation, but they also have to make useful sense to the people for which they areintended. For instance, the goal for improving urban and peri-urban production systems isto increase vegetable supply and enhance the well-being of all parties involved, not justenhanced performance of crop and technologies.

References Jansen, H. G. P. 1992. Supply and demand of AVRDC mandate crops in Asia: Implications of

past trends for future development. Working Paper no. 4 (revised version) . AVRDC,Taiwan.

Ninez, V. 1984. Household gardens: Theoretical considerations as an old survival strategy.Food System Research Series, no. 1, International Potato Center, Lima

Pasandaran, E. & Hadi, P. U. 1994. Prospek komoditi hortikultura di Indo-nesia dalamkerangka pembangunan ekonomi. Makalah pada Penyusunan Prioritas dan DesainPenelitian Hortikultura, Solok, 17-19 November 1994.

Sanyal, B. 1985. Urban agriculture: Who cultivates and why? A case study of Lusaka, Zambia.A paper published in the Household Food Production. Comparative Perspectives, CIP.

van Lieshout, O. 1992. Consumption of fresh vegetables in Indonesia. Internal Communicationno. 48. Project ATA-395/LEHRI.

urban and periurban vegetable production systems in bandung city, indonesia

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