Malang, (malangkota.go.id) – The Malang City Government through the Food Security and Agriculture Service (Dispangtan) held the Urban Farming Festival to commemorate the 42nd World Food Day in 2022. The activity, which carried the theme 'Optimistic in Realizing Food Sovereignty Through Food Production, Nutrition, and a Better Life', was held at the Kartini Imperial Building, Tuesday (25/10/2022).
Head of Food Security, Lilis Pujiharti said that the commemoration of World Food Day aims to increase public awareness and attention to the importance of food issues.
"This moment is not only about celebrating the food we enjoy, but also raising awareness that hunger is still a major problem in a number of countries," he said.
In addition, Lilis said that the commemoration of World Food Day also increases awareness of healthy living and what the body needs.
Head of Dispangtan Malang City, Slamet Husnan said that food issues are a concern for all regions and countries, including Malang City. Slamet said that agricultural land in Malang City is decreasing. This is inversely proportional to the increasing need for food supplies.
"Currently, around 800 hectares of rice fields in Malang City are planted with rice, producing 15 thousand tons of rice in one year. Meanwhile, rice consumption in Malang City in 2021 reached 4.000 tons per month. So the government needs to encourage increasing the productivity of agricultural, fisheries, and livestock businesses in Malang City," said Slamet.
Furthermore, Slamet also said that cooperation between regions is needed to fulfill food needs, synergy with banking and the business world is no less important.
"In order to maintain food security in Malang City, one of them is we encourage the community to do urban farming. Urban farming is very useful for maintaining family food security," he explained.
In addition to encouraging people to do urban farming. The Malang City Government, through Dispangtan has made various efforts to improve urban farming to support food security in Malang City. Various assistance for production facilities and infrastructure and technical guidance are provided to the community.
In this event, Dispangtan also symbolically provided assistance consisting of organic seloliman certification to the Bumi Malang Lestari Independent Agriculture and Rural Training Center (P4S). RW 8 Lesanpuro Village was given chili seeds and organic fertilizer. Meanwhile, freshwater fish farming infrastructure was given to fish farmers. Not to be missed, millennial farmers were given one free-range chicken coop, six kampung chickens, and chicken feed.
In accordance with the purpose of the World Food Day commemoration, the Malang City Food and Agriculture Service also called for a 'Stop Food Waste' campaign. Through this campaign, the public is invited to eat enough and not too much. Food waste can harm the environment and climate because of methane gas which will worsen global warming. (ari/ram)
