6th RRPG International Conference Participants. Bogor, 28 September 2015.

6th RRPG International Conference and Field Study

“MANAGING RURAL TRANSITION AT URBAN FRINGE TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY”

IPB Bogor, Indonesia, 28-29 September 2015

Activity

The 6th RRPG International Conference and field study has been held in Bogor, Indonesia on 27-28 September 2015. The Conference was attended by Rural Development Minister, with about 200 International and Indonesian participants. The Conference presented 35 papers, and 3 main presentations.

In 28 August 2015, the participants visit the tea plantation and vegetable farmers in Puncak, a highland of Bogor area. In the field, the participants visit some interesting objects i.e. vegetable farming,  waste recycling and composting, tea plantation. The participants also had opportunity to discuss with the local farmer community.

Thanks and appreciation to all the Conference committee from Agriculture Institute of Bogor (IPB), especially to Dr. Ernan Rustiadi, Dr Nurhayati, and all organizer members.

Background

Rural areas endowed valuable landscapes, agricultural production systems as well as social values, often shaped by a very long history of interaction between humans and nature such as agriculture and forestry. These rural landscapes form an important asset for rural areas, as they may attract tourists, day trippers and new residents. Urban expansion in rural areas could affect the rural landscape in a negative way, both in terms of quality

and quantity. Due to uncontrolled urban expansion, rural landscapes may also deteriorate due to changes in agricultural production, such as modernization, intensification, scale enlargement or land abandonment.
In many countries, the suburbanization process in rural areas has involved the systematic growth of fringe areas at a more rapid than that of core cities, and as a lifestyle involving a daily commuting to job places in the
center, occurred in surrounding the main cities of the world. Being significantly different from the urbanization and suburbanization processes in western countries, recent studies on Asian urbanization have stressed
that the continuing outward expansion of the largest urban regions has been driven by economic expansion and has resulted in extended areas of mixed land use on city peripheries, which so called as desakota region (McGee 1987; 1990; 1991), derived from the Indonesian words for village (Desa) and city (Kota). This idea of desakota describes as previously agricultural areas with an intense mix of settlement and economic activity, comprising agriculture, industry, housing development, and other land use. Currently, the rural around the urban fringe are faced with the challenge of finding a dynamic and sustainable transition model without sacrificing the richness of the landscape, key production systems and cultural values.

Objective

1. To share best practices and experiences of research on rural development through innovative approaches to solve the problems, challenge the threats and new opportunities in various aspects such as spatial organization, institution development, human resources development, infrastructure development, agriculture based cluster development, as well as from the viewpoint of management, process and method of planning
2. To discuss and explore new challenges and opportunities of the current trends on rural transformation in the context of globalization, decentralization, and information technology, particularly in urban fringe.
3. To develop pathways of transition model that can maintain the sustainability of the production systems, the socio-cultural values and quality of the landscape.

Themes

Authors are invited to submit abstracts describing their original research. Areas covered by the conference includes but not limited to :
-Rice field conversion                                -Rural-urban linkages
-Resilient rural rice culture                      -Rural economy in urban fringe
-Community based rural tourism           -Rural resiliency and environmental issues
-Rural Governance                                     -Rural and cultural landscape
-Community empowerment in rural      -Conflict in the suburbs

Some Conference and Field Visit activity photos:

6th RRPG International Conference Participants. Bogor, 28 September 2015.

Prof Jonathan Rigg give a presentation as a main speaker of 6th RRPG International Conference. IPB Bogor, 28 September 2015.

Rural Development Minister of Indonesia attend the 6th RRPG Conference. IPB Bogor – Indonesia, 28 September 2015

Participants group from UTM Malaysia at 6th RRPG International Conference. 28 September 2015.

Participants used “Iket Sunda”, a traditional cloth of head cover, before field visit. Puncak, 29 September 2015.

Briefing from Dr. Ernan Rustiadi about profile the area of Puncak. Puncak, 29 September 2015.

RRPG Participants visit organic vegetable farm. Puncak, 29 September 2015.

Participants get information about waste recycle processing and composting. Puncak, 29 September 2015.

Dr. Ibrahim with local farmer and farming machine in Puncak field visit. 29 September 2015..

RRPG Participants with tea plantation farmers. Puncak, 29 September 2015.

Briefing to the participants about tea plantation and processing. Puncak, 29 September 2015.

Participants try a manual tea processing at Puncak, Bogor. 29 September 2015.

RRPG Participants at tea plantation. Bogor – Indonesia, 29 September 2015.