Abstract:

 
This paper proposes that urban agriculture (UA) enables urban farmers to cope with issues of food, economic, and social insecurity, as well as lack of urban green space; therefore, it contributes to the practical efforts made towards sustainable urban development. In Jakarta, some programs and policies have been developed to manage existing UA practice. However, some practical gaps and environmental challenges are left unaddressed, thus limiting their performance in supporting and sustaining UA development. This study considers urban farmers’ motivation to farm and their experienced benefits from farming as critical success factors in sustaining UA activities. This study was done qualitatively by employing focus group discussions and questionnaire surveys to identify and analyze urban farmer’s motivation to farm and their experienced benefits from farming in Central Jakarta—the centermost municipality of Jakarta. Results revealed gaps in urban farmers’ motivations and experienced benefits from farming that had not been addressed by the currently implemented UA policies. From therein, some entry points for policy development were discussed. It was concluded that with no novel approach and policy intervention, it will be increasingly challenging for urban farmers to sustain UA activities; this will also hinder UA’s contribution to sustainable urban development.