Rural vs Urban Household Approaches to Reduce Food Waste: A Comparative Study

Department of Agricultural Socioeconomics, Faculty of Agriculture, Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: yunitaalfinapuspitasari@mail.ugm.ac.id

Abstract

The differences in behavior and consumption levels between rural and urban households lead to variations in the amount of food waste. Due to higher consumption rates and inefficient management, urban households produce higher food waste than rural households. This research was conducted in April 2025. A quantitative descriptive approach was used in this study. This study aims to evaluate the difference in the amount of food waste and its reduction efforts between rural and urban households in the Bantul Regency to describe rural communities, Sleman Regency and Yogyakarta City for urban communities. A total of 100 respondents were selected purposively from both rural and urban areas. The analytical method employed was the Mann-Whitney U Test. The results show that urban communities tend to discard more food waste than rural communities. In addition, there are differences in food consumption management between urban and rural communities in terms of planning, storing and disposing.