Search

Urbanization has become a global phenomenon that affects the food system. Some studies revealed that urbanization increases income/capita, thus transforming food consumption from cereals to animal products, vegetables, and fruits. Urbanization, particularly in developing countries, not only produces economic benefits but also various issues that might lessen peoples’ capacity to afford food. This study aims to analyze the impact of urbanization on food consumption, food composition, as well as farming performance. Series of consumption data since 1976 and statistical descriptive approaches were employed. The results showed a trend of declining the share of food expenditures, especially in urban areas, which is commonly regarded as a sign of increasing prosperity. Surprisingly, food composition remained stable, dominated by rice, due to lower-income and higher non-food expenditures of urban inhabitants mainly for housing, transportation, water and energy. The stagnancy of food composition provides less incentive for farmers; thus, farming is dominated by low-revenue paddy fields, uneducated laborers, and older farmers. Based on these findings, some recommendations can be suggested: (1) incorporating food composition and farming performance into food security policies, instead of merely focusing on the compliance of food supply and demand, (2) linking food issues with non-food issues, especially with urban planning, housing development, and transportation management to increase the income capacity of the society to purchase a greater variety of food, and (3) developing food diversification served by urban food vendors to support the benefits of the farming business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban form is the physical configuration of a city, developed over time and space. Urban form can be considered at different scales, from region to neighborhood, each carrying a different focus. North Cianjur serves as the hinterland and one of the conurbation corridors of the Jakarta–Bandung Mega-Urban Region, meaning that the balance between its function as an environmental buffer area and the destination of urban growth needs to be planned carefully. This paper explores the dynamics in North Cianjur and employs several model scenarios as a planning intervention using landscape dynamic tools and land-change modeling, with three scenarios employed: Business as Usual (BAU), Spatial Planning Policy (SPP), and Urban Containment (UCT). The result show that North Cianjur has transformed into a polycentric region with two urban zones, a peri-urban zone, and a rural zone in the northernmost part of the region. Urban form trends show a sprawling built-up pattern outside urban zones, and a compacted trend in urban zones due to expansion from the Jakarta and Bandung Metropolitan Area. UCT models appear to be the most optimal for implementation in North Cianjur, representing a way to accommodate urban growth and expansion inside the urban center while still maintaining regional sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mega-urban development in Monsoon Asia has a relatively similar pattern, which leads to the formation of Mega-Urban Region (MUR). Such urban development potentially threatens sustainability as it vastly expands to encroaching rural areas. North Cianjur has been experiencing urban expansion from its surrounding metropolitan areas of Jakarta and Bandung that leads to the formation of urban sprawl and many other environmental problems. In this case, spatial characterization based on a quantitative and objective approach is urgently needed to provide better insight into the development of the mega-urban region's suburb. This study proposed a quantitative and objective approach which was developed based on a quantitative zoning method. This study aims to characterize the region affected by urban expansion and urban form dynamics in North Cianjur using spatial clustering and spatial metrics approaches. The results showed that North Cianjur has four different zones consisting of two urban zones, a peri-urban zone, and a rural zone. Furthermore, the dynamics of urban forms in North Cianjur showed a trend of a more compact form in the urban zones while outside the urban zones it has become more sprawled and dispersed. This implies that spatial planning policies are incapable of containing and managing the massive expansion forces which were coming from Jakarta metropolitan, Bandung metropolitan, as well as Cianjur urban zones itself. Thus, the quantitative zoning method could enhance spatial planning, as different zones of urban–rural typology and urban from in the mega-urban suburb can be defined as a base for developing more specific effort in managing land-use changes. This approach could be adopted by other regions which have similar characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food security has become one of the global challenges; therefore, monitoring food consumption is required. As food consumption is a resultant of food availability at an affordable price, food expenditure actually is a key indicator to assess food security policy. Particularly, the link of food expenditure with socio-economic factors based on the perspective of spatial connectivity should be understood as nowadays food supply and demand between regions are increasingly connected. This study aims to define socio-economic driving factors of food expenditure that considering spatial connectivity between provinces in Indonesia. Data of household food expenditure and socio-economic factors by province including urbanization level, economic growth, gross domestic regional product (GDRP) per capita, poverty severity index, and unemployment rate were used. The preliminary test on the spatial correlation of food expenditure showed a significant result; thus, a spatial regression approach was employed. The results showed that declining food expenditure did not simply indicate increasing prosperity. Larger income disparity among the poor has become crucial to detect lower food expenditure caused by a lack of income. In addition, the increasing unemployment rate was followed by increasing food expenditure. Despite economic growth, increasing GDRP per capita and urbanization contributing to declining food expenditure, both poverty and unemployment are the main issues that threaten household's ability to afford food. Furthermore, the effect of food expenditure in the neighboring region is also significant, but it shows a contradictory relationship as food expenditure in a region is decreasing when food expenditure in its neighbors is increasing, and vice versa. Therefore, reducing disparities in economic growth, GDRP per capita, urbanization, poverty, and unemployment rate between provinces is also crucial to support more equal food expenditure as well as to achieve the second goal of SDG's (Sustainable Development Goals) in improving food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]