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SINGAPORE – The roofs of a handful of multi-storey car parks in Singapore will be converted for use in vegetable and other food crops starting later this year.
The tender for nine of those sites was launched on Tuesday (May 12) by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA).
They include five individual sites at Ang Mo Kio, Tampines, Toa Payoh, Hougang, and Choa Chu Kang, and two cluster sites, comprising two sites each, at Sembawang and Jurong West. Site sizes ranged from 1,808 square meters, or one-third of a soccer field, to 3,311 square meters, or three-fifths of a soccer field.
Each site is tendered for a period of three years. For cluster sites, the successful bidder will receive all sites within the cluster.
The launch is one of the strategies adopted by the SFA to increase local food production as part of Singapore’s 30-by-30 goal: to produce 30 percent of the country’s nutritional needs locally by 2030, the agencies said in a joint statement.
Last month, SFA also launched the Express 30 x 30 grant to help local farms accelerate production of fish, leafy greens and eggs in the next six to 24 months. Local farms produced about 14 percent of the leafy vegetables, 26 percent of the eggs, and 10 percent of the fish consumed in the country last year.
The ongoing battle against the Covid-19 outbreak and the resulting blockades imposed in many countries around the world have highlighted Singapore’s dependence on food imports and its vulnerability to global supply shocks. Currently, the Republic imports more than 90 percent of its food supply.
During the supplemental budget debate last month, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said Covid-19 also underlined the importance of further strengthening Singapore’s supply chain resilience and food security. He added that the Government will continue to ensure a stable supply of food and essential items through a robust and multiple strategy.
SFA said it will continue to work with HDB to launch more multi-story parking lots for urban agriculture through public bidding in the second half of this year, a move that is also in line with HDB’s Green Cities Program, which seeks to cool Cities HDB through the use of vegetation, such as on the roofs of car parks.
Last month, the SFA said it was also working to identify other spaces on the island, aside from multi-story parking garages, suitable for commercial agriculture, including industrial sites.
Melvin Chow, senior director of SFA’s food supply resilience division, said the tender launch for the nine sites comes in the wake of growing industry and public interest in urban agriculture in community spaces, then from the launch of the agency’s multi-storey pilot rooftop parking garage in Ang Mo Kio last year.
“Residents in the area have been able to enjoy fresh farm produce at nearby supermarkets, and can witness firsthand the hard work involved in bringing our food from the farm to the table,” Chow said.
Mr. Teo Hwa Kok, founder of Citiponics, said his company planned to participate in the latest tender and expand its production capacity beyond its Ang Mo Kio site, but that would depend on further on-site evaluations.
He added that prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, several government organizations already had plans to open those alternative spaces for food production, but the decision to present them in light of the current situation showed “incredible support” to boost food resilience. in Singapore.
Food security expert Professor Paul Teng said the launch of the tender was timely as any additional space would mean more production in the short term.
“Initiatives like this never come too late, as it is possible to turn unused space, like roofs, into productive gardens that produce products for consumption or sale in as little as six months,” he said.
However, the success of rooftop farms will depend on many factors, including the choice of vegetables to grow and the method of cultivation, Professor Teng added.
“While a dozen rooftop farms may not significantly affect the availability of vegetables as a whole in the country, any quantity that is produced locally goes that extra step to reduce our dependence on imports.”
“It also develops the spirit of self-sufficiency and values the freshest products with low-energy footprints.”
More details about the tender are available on GeBiz and on the SFA website.
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