Price Tagging on Urban Farming Benefit in the Context of Ecosystem Services

Abstract

Rapid urbanisation, along with urban poverty, leads to social and environmental challenges that require cities to improve their resilience. Urban farming is promoted as an essential strategy for improving cities’ resilience by providing ecosystem services, namely strengthening the community, improving the urban environment and saving energy. The research aimed to estimate urban farming benefits in the context of ecosystem services in the monetary unit. It took place in Malang City, East Java–Indonesia, as a case study. The study utilised the Total Economic Value framework in conjunction with the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity concept to develop and estimate indicators of urban farming benefit into valuation through the direct market and stated preferences approaches. The study employed field surveys, in-depth interviews and remote sensing analysis. Here we show for the first time that the Total Economic Value of urban farming benefits reached up to US$ 13.11 in a square metre annually if all urban farming forms occupy a square metre each. However, this value had a gap with the benchmark of US$ 15.89/m2 annually. The gap value could be a policy recommendation to incentivise citizens to participate in emerging urban farming initiatives actively. This benefit value indicates that urban farming is feasible and valuable for further development.