North Jakarta invites public to meet food needs by growing vegetables

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Jakarta City Government, through the North Jakarta Food Security, Maritime, and Agriculture Sub-Department (KPKP), is inviting the public to meet their food needs by growing vegetables via urban farming on limited land. “We are encouraging the community to get into the habit of consuming fresh and healthy vegetables through the distribution of harvested vegetables to the public,” said the Head of the North Jakarta KPKP Sub-Department, Novy Christine Palit, in Jakarta on Friday. Her office is intensifying planting activities to support food availability in North Jakarta. “We hope the community becomes increasingly aware of the importance of consuming healthy vegetables and is motivated to start planting in their own environments,” she said. The North Jakarta KPKP also distributed harvested vegetables to residents around the Cilincing Fish Auction Site (TPI) and road users passing through Rorotan-Marunda Road. “We distributed 20 kilograms of pakcoy, equivalent to 82 bags, and 10 kilograms of kangkung, about 40 bunches, to the residents,” Novy stated. All the distributed vegetables, she said, were the result of cultivation by employees at the Agricultural Extension Centre (BPP), with varying planting periods from 21 days to three months. “The distributed vegetables are from our own harvest. We want to ensure that the vegetables received by the community are still fresh, so they are safe to consume,” she said. The KPKP Sub-Department is also planting onions and cassava in the BPP area as part of urban farming development. “This activity involves around five BPP employees who actively carry out planting, maintenance, and harvesting of food and horticultural crops,” she revealed. She hopes the Friday Blessing programme can continue and benefit the wider community. “This activity is also expected to foster public awareness of the importance of utilising land for planting,” she said.