Bandung Living Lab

Bandung

Urban Agriculture Heritage the Living Lab:

Learn from the past for a sustainable future!

As the approach in transform Bandung Urban Agriculture Heritage in the reality scale, we built Corporate Living Labs that focus on having a physical place where stakeholders (e.g. citizens) invited to co-create innovations. Bandung Urban Agriculture Heritage the Living Lab engage the awareness of the local heritage through several activities. Multi stakeholder activities accommodate through the mentorship scheme that bring the enablers, communities, innovators, academician, company, government and all potential sector to involve in knowledge and experience sharing in order to grounding the local heritage that has existed.

The living lab also develop prototype demonstration plot base on the information, knowledge and innovation regarding the Bandung Urban Agriculture Heritage which mixed traditional knowledge/heritage with the recent agricultural engineering that learn from the past for a more sustainable future. Adaptive local knowledge will be transformed in order to restore the function of high diversity home garden or mimicking forests, that expected to increase the community incomes besides being able to reduce the impact of climate change which including the payments for environmental services (water, environmental degradation, etc.) and to answer the global issues of “carbon trade”.

Bandung City

Prior to the 1800s, Bandung city was thought of as a hunting ground or swamp forest,although it was essentially an uninhabited region. Bandung is a mountainous and fertile area, this altered the pattern and was used as a producer of plantation commodities, especially coffee, tea, and quinine, with the arrival of the trading firm Vereniging Oost Indies Companij (VOC) at 19 th century. During the colonial era, Bandung changed from being a village and district under the Sultanate of Mataram to becoming a residence for Europeans. Bandung’s developed as gementee in 1903expedited the city’s transformation into a contemporary metropolis and the Dutch East Indies choseBandung as their capital in 1938. Bandung’s population increased quickly during the independence movement and the early years of freedom, which resulted in the creation of numerous illegalsettlements. From 8,098 hectares in 1950 to around 14,000 hectares in 1987, the city’s area grew. Even though it was no longer the nation’s capital, Bandung was crucial to the growth of Indonesia.

In the Bandung city, agricultural land expansion in one sub-watershed has beyond legal arealimit. Because it relies heavily on expensive outside inputs, urban agriculture requires land protectionto maintain its productive capacity. There is an urgent need to construct resilient food systems toprovide a portion of the country’s food needs through the systematic development of home garden as urban agriculture. However, as a result of West Java’s rapid urbanization, the population has grownand industrial structures have transitioned from agricultural to nonagricultural activities.

Home gardens as Urban Agriculture Heritage in the Bandung region have been harmed by population pressure and fragmentation, a rise in land costs, a developing market economy, and large-scale land conversion to non-agricultural activities, primarily related to urbanization and commercialization. Urbanization had a detrimental impact on the sizes of house gardens, while home gardens were in grave ecological and financial danger when their sizes decreases. The majority of the current alterations to home gardens have lost their original traits of rich biodiversity and diverse economic benefits.

The Living Lab set-up

MEETINGS includes Enablers meeting, Communities meetings, Innovation sharing, Communities hearing regarding the Urban Agriculture Heritage.

DEMPLOT ARRANGEMENT, mimicking forest urban agriculture model in minimum 200m2 demplot area, learn from the past for sustainable future.

FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS business meetings between all the stakeholders includes the enablers, communities, companies and government.

Research Approach

Bandung Urban Agriculture Heritage the Living Lab is organized into 3 Work plan (WP) which mixed traditional knowledge/heritage with the recent agricultural engineering that learn from the past for a more sustainable future.

Work Plan 2 focusses on empowering local stakeholders in order to increase awareness and participatory understanding of the local heritage (e.g Enablers Meetings, Communities Meetings, Innovation Sharing, Urban Agriculture Heritage Communities Hearing; Focus Group Discussion with Stakeholders, and Demplot Arrangement by mimicking Forest Urban Agriculture (Living Lab).

Description and Details of BUAH’s Key Characteristics

Pekarangan: Homegarden-based Bandung Urban Agriculture Heritage

Urban agriculture with Pekarangan-based [heritage] framework demonstrated higher agrobiodiversity, which promoted improved food security and social values through food sharing. High agrobiodiversity also provided greater economic benefits, including higher profits from diverse agricultural goods marketed. Urban agricultural enablers with pekarangan framework reportedimproved consumer diversification and food security.

Sundanese Philosophies Transformation for Traditional Food System in Cirendeu Traditional Village

Cirendeu Traditional Village has existed since 1918. Cireundeu comes from the name “Reundeu plant” (Staurogyne longata), because previously in this village there was a large population of Reundeu plants that lived wild. The plant itself has many benefits, one of which is as an ingredient in herbal medicine. Cireundeu Traditional Village is located in Leuwigajah Village, South Cimahi District, as part or Bandung’s peri-urban. With an area of 64 ha, consisting of 60 ha for agriculture and 4 ha for residential. They are always consistent in carrying out the teachings of their beliefs, and continue to preserve the culture and customs passed down from their ancestors. They have the principle “Ngindung ka Waktu, Mibapa ka Jaman” the meaning of the words “Ngindung ka waktu” is that we as traditional village residents have our own ways, characteristics and beliefs. Meanwhile, “Mibapa ka jaman” means that the people of the Cireundeu Traditional Village do not resist the changing times but follow the presence of technology, television, communication tools in the form of cell phones and lighting. The concept was in line with how heritage is lived within and adaptable with the whole dynamics, not as freezing framework. The community has transformed a Sundanese traditional space concept in their village structure that divided into three parts, namely:

Leuweung Larangan (forbidden forest) is a forest whose trees cannot be cut down because it is intended as water storage for the Cireundeu indigenous community in particular.

Leuweung Kuncian (reforestation forest) is a forest that is used for reforestation, the forest can use its trees but the community has to replant with new trees. The area reaches 2 to 3 hectares.

Leuweung Baladahan (agricultural forest) is a forest that can be used for gardening by the Cireundeu indigenous community. Usually planted with corn, peanuts, cassava or cassava, and tubers.

Cassava-based diets are also distinctive to the Cireundeu which began when pests and drought destroyed Cireundeu rice fields in 1918. Since 1924, they’ve followed this food security trend in shifting from rice to cassava consumption and it has been passed down for generations. Cassava was chosen as a main food because it grows year-round. Sago is made from harvested cassava, and the dregs are made into rice-based cassava called rasi. Cassava processing is expanding and is even utilized to make cakes and snacks. Rice is not outlawed, but they consciously follow ancestral practices. The Cirendeu indigenous community also has food consumption rules: ‘Teu nyawah asal boga pare, Teu boga pare asal boga beas, Teu boga beas asal bisa nyangu, Teu nyangu asal bisa dahar, Teu dahar asal kuat’. It means no problem if not being able to grow fields as long as having paddy, not having paddy is not a problem as long as having rice, not having rice is not a problem as long as having cooked rice, also no problem if not being able to eat as long as still strong. This guideline continues to be instilled to this day.

Nyawang masa ka tukang, pikeun neteup ka hareup, ku bukti nu aya kiwari”−Learn from the past for sustainable future

Jasmine integrated farming - Annisa Mustika

Bandung Urban Agriculture Heritage the Living Lab (BUAH.thelivinglab) aimed to ignite a participatory urban agriculture heritage model within local communities that fulfilled hydrology and ecological functions, increased social value, and provided sufficient income not only directly but also in terms of payment for environmental services. Diverse stakeholder involvement could spark local heritage transformation in communities, allowing existing urban agriculture knowledge and practices to be improved collaboratively into better and more sustainable urban agriculture practices. Through the Sundanese phrase Nyawang masa ka tukang, pikeun neteup ka hareup, ku bukti nu aya kiwari − BUAH.thelivinglab deep dive the history and traditions to delve in and transform the urban agriculture heritage in recent urban life for learn from the past for sustainable future.