Heritage that Living Within the Urban Agriculture: Insights from the Bandung Workshop
From April 25th to May 4th, 2024, Bandung hosted the third workshop on Integrated Study on Urban Agriculture Heritage. This event brought together experts, practitioners, and enthusiasts to explore the living cultural heritage and sustainable practices of urban agriculture, emphasizing the role of traditional knowledge in contemporary urban farming.
The workshop commenced with an inspiring opening ceremony, where all the INSUAH members and international experts highlighted the importance of preserving and integrating cultural heritage in urban agriculture. A speech address by Prof. Kazuhiko Takeuchi set the tone for the workshop, emphasizing the Satoyama Initiatives as exemplification of Universal Heritage Strategies with intersection of traditional practices and agricultural techniques to address climate change challenges. The work session also visited by the Regional Director of the Institute of Global Environmental Strategies, Dr. Jun Ichihara that also share the experience regarding the projects in the global strategies with sustainable development goals.
The following days were dedicated to exploring the INSUAH through some work session in regional updates, finalizing the mission statements, improve the map of mapping and case profile, integrating perspectives and formulating some policy recommendation. All the INSUAH members engaged in interactive sessions, to gain insight how traditional home garden preserve in recent urban agriculture practices among land use and population pressure. All the INSUAH members enjoyed hands-on workshops where they learned best practices of how heritage living within the urban agriculture practices.
Field visits to local urban farms showcased successful examples of integrating traditional practices with recent sustainability efforts. The first field visit is deep dive cassava-based urban agriculture practice with Sundanese philosophies as living guidance that is conducted by Traditional People in Cirendeu at Cimahi as Bandung peri-urban. The INSUAH team welcome by the traditional ceremony then continue to interactive discussion and barefoot hiking to cassava-planting area. All the members also involve in the making rasi (cassava rice) and bamboo-based traditional appliance. By the end of the fieldtrip, participants will understand the urban agriculture heritage significance and the traditional food system in Cirendeu Traditional Village.
All the INSUAH member also involves in the simultaneous planting of chili and onion which was initiated by the Agency of Food Security and Agriculture of Bandung City and the West Java Regional Development Bank (Bank BJB), which aims to strengthen food security through the use of limited land, increase the productivity of agricultural products and as a form of effort to reduce the rate of inflation. The simultaneous planting program collaborated with the urban farming group, and one of the planting point was at Bandung Urban Agriculture Heritage (BUAH) the Living Lab. After following several activities with the Bandung municipalities all the team went for field trip to visit Citarum watershed to understand how the pressure occur towards the urban agriculture practices and drive the commercialization and threaten homegarden as heritage. Participants gain an insight regarding the commercialization pressure towards urban agriculture practices which lead the structure alteration from homegarden as heritage into monoculture practices that are vulnerable.
At Day 5, some local partners were invited to present their perspectives regarding the urban agriculture and heritage. The work sessions involves four speakers of M. Ryzki Wirawan (Bandung History Activist and Writer); Sedekah Benih (Local initiatives that engage collaboration which focus on traditional ecological knowledge in urban environmental practice initiated by an urban farming activist); The Agency of Food Security and Agriculture of Bandung City (Municipality department, that developing the urban agriculture program in Bandung City called Buruan Sae); Kami Seni Tani (Local initiatives that develop Community Support Agriculture and local supply chain based on Bandung urban agriculture). The speakers sharing insight from the enablers regarding the recent urban agriculture practices in Bandung city, from the history, art, culture, recent practices including community support agriculture, and local supply chain.
Mini conference held as the final day workshop, which invites experts, community, local leaders, and all the urban agriculture enablers to discussed the findings and challenges on urban agriculture especially for Bandung cases. Every PI speaks and presenting their thought how to integrate perspectives on Urban Agriculture Heritage for global sustainability. The workshop not only filled with academic and cultural session, but also some occasion in enjoying Bandung’s traditional foods that involves in the local food systems that integrates with heritage. By the end of the session, participants gain comprehensive insight regarding urban agriculture heritage in local and global scale and how it can be fit to the local needs and answer the global sustainability issues.
The workshop concluded with a cultural closing ceremony, reflecting on the achievements and lessons learned. Participants expressed their commitment to implementing the knowledge gained and fostering collaborations to promote urban agriculture as heritage. The event successfully bridged traditional knowledge and recent practices, paving the way for a resilient and culturally enriched approach to urban agriculture. The Bandung Workshop on Urban Agriculture Heritage not only celebrated the city’s rich agricultural traditions but also laid the foundation for future initiatives that blend heritage with sustainability.
