Urban agriculture, the production of agricultural goods by urban residents, is hard to do for some communities.  This is due to the limited space of land available and the minimum farming information that could be accessed by the communities,

Last month, Dian Anggraini the Program Manager of Omar Niode Foundation attended an urban farming workshop organized by Helianti Hilman, the Executive Director of PT. Kampung Kearifan Indonesia, at her home in South Jakarta.

At the household level, urban agriculture can be a source of income, can provide direct access to a larger number of nutritionally rich foods (vegetables, fruit, meat) and a more varied diet, can increase the stability of household food consumption against seasonality or other temporary shortages, and can increase the time mothers spend caring for their children, as opposed to non-agricultural activities that are more likely to be located further away from home (Zezza & Tascioti, 2010).

According to Helianti, Urban Farming is a fun activity with a lot of benefits for the farmers and those around them. She started urban farming at the end of 2011 triggered by the needs for organic vegetables for her family. To fulfill the needs, Helianti started identifying what crops she frequently consume at home and began looking for information about the crops.

Her hard work paid off as shown by a variety of crops in her yard. Workshops participants were amazed to see how Papua chili, Italian eggplants, curry leaves, rice, cucumber, green grass jelly, basil, bananas, peppers, lavender, kale, spinach, oregano, rosella, lemon grass, moringa, passion fruit and many more thrive there. 

Prior to practicing urban farming there are a few things to note according to Helianti:

1. Start with a list of fruits and vegetables often consumed by your family and how often you have them.
2. Take advantage of waste around the house. Organic waste, such as vegetable or fruit scraps, fish spines and bones can be used for fertilizer. While non- organic waste such as milk boxes and tin cans are good containers to grow some crops.
3. Understand the water and sun requirements, the nature of the crops, and their harvesting schedule.
4. Alternate planting crop species to avoid pests and to make them grow well. For example: do not grow eggplants, chili and cucumbers in the same place because they are all greedy for nutrients and water. It is best to grow eggplant and alternate it with spices (ginger) or flowers (lavender) that can help repel insects.
5. Choose natural fertilizers wisely according to the crops’ needs.

Required tools and materials to begin urban farming encompass the soil, compost, scissors, seeds of organic crops, pot/milk carton packaging/used cans, water spray, shovels, fertilizer, and paper or aluminum.

More than 10 people gathered for the urban farming workshop led by Helianti Hilman.  Puty, a housewife, first met Helianti at the Food Revolution Java event arranged by Omar Niode Foundation and Honocoro Community last May. She would like to understand more about urban farming and do it at her own backyard. Business practitioners and employees, signed up for the workshop to know about urban farming method and learn from each other’s experience.

Workshop participants had a chance to learn how to trap insects traditionally by infusing aromas they like into a plastic bottle.

Once tools and materials ready, Helianti said you can begin to grow the plants with the following steps:

. Mix compost and soil in pots by using a shovel, with more compost compared to soil.

1. Water the mixture of soil and compost by using water spray, to avoid over pouring of water.
2. Use good quality seeds or seedlings for planting. Helianti advised not to use Genetically Modified Organism labeled seeds or hybrid because the two varieties will not grow properly.
3. After putting the seeds into the mixture of soil and compost, mark the pots by using paper or aluminum to record the names of plants and planting date. This step is important to know when to harvest.
4. Place the potted plants in open areas with access to sunlight.
5. Water the plants regularly, use fertilizers and do not hesitate to rotate crops 

Led by Helianti Hilman and her assistant, Dwi, participants enthusiastically planted chili, basil, basil, spinach and kale. The truth is there are some plants that most of us often heard about but never actually know how they look like.  

At the end of the workshop all went home with new knowledge, and a bag full of seeds, fertilizers and crops information.

Urban agriculture does not require a large piece of land as shown by Helianti Hilman who has a collection of 1500 plants in her modest yard.

Photos by Dian Anggraini