Freeing up more space for commercial farming is among the strategies of SFA to achieve its goal of meeting 30% of Singapore’s nutritional needs with locally produced food by 2030. Photo: Facebook.com/citiponics
Tenders for urban farming at nine rooftop sites at Housing and Development Board (HDB) multi-storey car parks have been awarded to six bidders, reported Channel News Asia (CNA) citing a joint release from the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) and HDB.
The bids for the five single sites as well as two cluster sites – which comprises two sites each – were determined by a price-quality method, in which both price and quality attributes such as design and layout, production output and business/marketing plan were taken into consideration.
The single sites at Ang Mo Kio, Hougang, Choa Chu Kang, Toa Payoh and Tampines were awarded to Abyfarm, Gaurav Saraf, IT Meng Landscape and Construction, Red Green Collective and Nature’s International Commodity respectively.
Related article: Everything You Need To Know About Urban Farming in Singapore
The cluster site in Jurong West was also awarded to IT Meng Landscape and Construction.
Goh Lay Keow was awarded the remaining cluster site in Sembawang.
SFA CEO Lim Kok Thai revealed that the proposals of the successful tenderers included hydroponic and vertical farming systems with various innovative features like blockchain technology, IoT and automated climate control.
“With these farming systems, the sites have the potential to collectively produce around 1,600 tonnes of vegetables annually,” he said as quoted by CNA.
Freeing up more space for commercial farming is among the strategies of SFA to achieve its goal of meeting 30% of Singapore’s nutritional needs with locally produced food by 2030.
SFA said it will continue working with HDB to tender out more HDB carpark rooftop sites for urban farming in Q4 2020.
Meanwhile, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu noted in a Facebook post on Wednesday (30 September) that climate change and the challenges of Covid-19, along with other environmental and trade pressures, “pose a threat to Singapore’s supply of critical resources such as food”.
”To mitigate the risks of disruption to our food supply, we set a ’30 by 30′ goal last year. By 2030, we aim to meet 30% of our nutritional needs with locally produced food. This will spur the growth of our agri-food industry and generate new and upgraded jobs for our people,” she said as quoted by CNA.
And given the scarcity of land in Singapore, SFA has been “unlocking alternative spaces to grow food, such as vacant buildings and carpark rooftops, and we will be tendering out more of such spaces”.
“Over the next few years, we will be master-planning the larger Lim Chu Kang area and will be engaging the stakeholders and the public in the process. In the longer term, we will expand agriculture in the Lim Chu Kang area and aquaculture off our southern coast,” she added.
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Victor Kang, Digital Content Specialist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email victorkang@propertyguru.com.sg