Have you ever thought that living in a dense urban area means you can’t have your own garden? No, no, that kind of thinking needs to be thrown away!
Urban farming is really trendy right now. Integrated gardens in cities aren’t just an aesthetic trend to make your home look green on social media, but also a movement for independent food security.
So, if you’re unsure where to start, we can definitely follow a super exciting concept initiated by the ALIT Foundation, the BERISIK (Gardening Is Fun) program. This concept proves that gardening isn’t boring, it’s not complicated, and can actually be a very enjoyable and educational communal activity!
What is the BERISIK concept from the ALIT Foundation?
The BERISIK concept is essentially an integrative movement that combines home- and school-scale agricultural activities with active community involvement. Through this program, the ALIT Foundation has successfully implemented integrated gardens that address three main pillars: schools, communities (villages), and homes.
So, it’s not just about planting trees and then leaving them! The BERISIK concept implements a fun gardening system that involves the entire ecosystem: children, parents, teachers, and even local government. The results? Amazing! Not only do you get greenery, but you also get health and knowledge.
Fun fact: To date, 267 homes have received vegetable and herb seeds, and they are actively farming independently on their own land!
To create a sustainable integrated garden in the city, we can follow the zoning formula from the ALIT Foundation below:
- BERISIK at School (School Gardening)
Students, parents, and teachers collaborate to plant vegetable seeds in the school environment. Children have a daily schedule for watering the plants, while parents help prepare the soil. This is an excellent way to introduce children to nature and develop responsibility and motor coordination from an early age.
- BERISIK in the Community (Community Gardening)
Community gardening centers are built on collective land such as the ALIT office area, village land, or vacant land owned by residents. Here, the scale is broader and more comprehensive, combining multi-crop vegetable cultivation, herbs, spices, and even aquaculture (aquaculture/fisheries) and chicken farming!
- BERISIK at Home (Home Gardening)
Each family creates a small vegetable garden in their own yard. The seeds are distributed directly from community gardens that have successfully passed the seeding stage. Thus, the seed supply chain is self-sustaining.
One thing that makes the BERISIK concept adaptable and popular with urban communities is the downstream distribution of the harvest. Harvests from schools and community gardens aren’t left to chance, but are used as the main ingredient in exciting Cooking Classes, often referred to as the Olah-Olah movement.
This communal cooking activity involves collaboration between parents and their children. In several areas, such as Surabaya, Bromo, Jember, and Flores, harvests of fish, eggs, fresh vegetables, lemons, bananas, and even spices are immediately processed into healthy, highly nutritious meals. This is a smart solution to break children’s dependence on instant and ultra-processed foods, which are dangerous in urban areas. Children are also proven to be much more enthusiastic about eating vegetables because they are involved in growing and cooking them themselves!
The BERISIK program has proven successful in various regions, each with its own unique characteristics, which can serve as interesting case studies for urban farming:
- Tetirah Gayatri Area (East Java): Outdoor learning activities with students of Palangsari I Elementary School. The children were introduced to plants (such as lilies, roses, gerberas, rice, and spring onions) and learned about the history of the Majapahit Kingdom interactively. They were also taught the stages of farming from an early age, from sowing seeds, mixing fertilizer, to transplanting seedlings ready for planting.
- Jember: Gardening activities were integrated as part of Early Childhood Education (PAUD/ECD) lessons. Furthermore, regular monitoring of the contents of children’s school lunch boxes demonstrated a significant trend of improving balanced nutrition through a healthy food campaign every Saturday.
- Tampak Siring (Bali): The village government collaborated with the regional government on food security activities. They involved local traditional institutions (Banjar/Customary Village) to implement the BERISIK and Olah-Olah movements collaboratively with all family members.
- Surabaya, Bromo, and Flores: Highly successful mapping of the use of independent garden produce for children’s cooking classes to reduce instant food consumption.
The Integrated Gardening concept through the BERISIK movement has proven to be more than just a matter of planting plants in pots, but also a movement that builds character, fosters cooperation, patience, responsibility, and strengthens family harmony.
By utilizing a single inch of land in your yard, an apartment balcony, or an empty corner in a residential area, we can all create a fun, educational, enjoyable, and satisfying urban garden.
