Strengthening Community Supported Agriculture

ABOUT PROGRAM

The City of Bandung, with a population of 2.5 million in 2022 (BPS Bandung City, 2023), faces serious challenges in food security. Although it has a largely productive population, with 24% of residents aged between 15 and 29, the city heavily relies on food imports from outside regions to meet 96% of its needs, including rice, fish, meat, vegetables, and fruits (Bandung City Food Security and Agriculture Agency, 2023).

Local agricultural production accounts for only 3.6% of the total food demand. This situation is due to the very limited availability of agricultural land, only 807.11 hectares, which continues to decrease due to land conversion for non-agricultural development, along with a slowdown in farmer regeneration (BPS Bandung City, 2023).

Amidst these conditions, Bandung also faces the impacts of climate change that affect food supply stability. In 2010, high rainfall caused a 30% loss in vegetable supply for the city (Adib, 2014). Food distribution is further hindered by flood issues, especially in the southern part of the city, which frequently occur and disrupt accessibility. Additionally, inflation reached 7.45% in December 2022, raising the cost of staple goods, which has weakened purchasing power and added pressure on food access (BPS Bandung City, 2023).

In response to these challenges, the Bandung City Government issued Regional Regulation No. 3 of 2024 on Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries Services. A key aspect highlighted in this regulation is the encouragement of increasing local food production in Bandung by three primary aspects.

Fisrt. protecting food production land from conversion pressures, including Protected Rice Fields and Sustainable Agricultural Land. Second, Implementing sustainable urban agriculture to address food insecurity. Thrid, promoting community participation in maintaining and increasing local food production through support for production facilities, incentives for communities maintaining food production land, and disincentives for those who repurpose food production land.

From a community participation standpoint, the Seni Tani movement has emerged as a youth-driven initiative in Bandung to revitalize urban farming, focusing on building sustainable local food systems by utilizing unused land.

Seni Tani promotes the concept of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) by collectively producing environmentally friendly agricultural products, developing a fair local food market by connecting consumers directly with farmers, organizing educational activities to enhance young people’s knowledge and technical skills in sustainable farming practices in Bandung, and promoting healthy, locally produced food products to Bandung residents.

AKATIGA sees the Tani Sauyunan CSA system as an opportunity for young people to create a social, political, and economic environment that allows them greater access to and control over sustainable livelihood resources in urban areas.

To achieve this goal, AKATIGA and Seni Tani have committed to establishing the PUPA Consortium to implement the Strengthening Tani Sauyunan CSA Program as a Model of Sustainable Local Food Systems in Greater Bandung in collaboration with the Urban Futures Program organized by the Humanis and Social Innovation Foundation. This program will run for 30 months, from September 2024 to February 2027, with the first year covering September 2024 to August 2025. Within this program framework, AKATIGA aims to support the development of Tani Sauyunan CSA by fostering policy spaces that can facilitate this system as an alternative to strengthening sustainable food systems in Bandung.

In this program, AKATIGA focuses on core activities, including research and policy advocacy related to youth and employment issues (particularly in agriculture, including MSMEs in the agriculture and food sector) and agrarian and environmental issues (especially access to unused urban land). Additionally, AKATIGA also plays a role in monitoring, evaluation, and learning processes within program implementation.

Meanwhile, the Seni Tani program strengthens the relevance of the local food system concept promoted by the Urban Futures Bandung program, with a strong foundation in developing Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) that features sustainable local farming mechanisms.