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On the rooftop of a Singapore shopping mall, a sprawling patch of eggplants, rosemary, bananas, and papayas contrast with the gray skyscrapers of the city-state’s business district.
The 10,000-square-foot (930-square-meter) site is among a growing number of rooftop farms in this space-hungry country, as part of a drive to produce more food locally and reduce heavy dependence on imports.
The government has defended the momentum amid concerns about climate change reducing crop yields around the world and trade tensions affecting imports, but the coronavirus pandemic has given it an additional boost.
“The common misconception is that there is no room for agriculture in Singapore because we are short of land,” said Samuell Ang, CEO of Edible Garden City, which manages the site at the mall.
“We want to change the narrative.”
Urban farms are springing up in crowded cities around the world, but the push to create rooftop parcels has taken on particular urgency in densely populated Singapore, which imports 90 percent of its food.
Agriculture was once common in the country, but it declined sharply as Singapore became a skyscraper-studded financial center. Now less than one percent of its land is dedicated to agriculture.
In recent years, however, the city of 5.7 million has seen food parcels sprout up on more and more rooftops.
Last year, authorities said they were aiming to meet 30 percent of the “nutritional needs” of the local population by 2030, and that they want to increase the production of fish and eggs, as well as vegetables.
With the coronavirus increasing fears about supply chain disruption, the government has accelerated its efforts, announcing that the rooftops of nine parking lots will be converted to urban farms and releasing Sg $ 30 million ($ 22 million) to boost local production. food.
Edible Garden City, one of several companies operating urban farms in Singapore, manages around 80 rooftop sites.
But they have also created many gardens in more unusual locations, including a former prison, in shipping containers, and on high-rise apartment balconies.
Their farms use only natural pesticides like neem oil to repel pests.
“What we really want to do is spread the message of growing our own food. We want to make the case that you don’t really need large patches of land,” said the company’s CEO Ang.
The company grows more than 50 varieties of food, ranging from aubergines, red okra and wild passion fruit to leafy greens, edible flowers and so-called “micro-vegetables”, vegetables that are harvested while they are still young.
It also uses high-tech methods.
At a site inside a shipping container, they are testing a specialized hydroponics (growing plants without soil) developed by a Japanese company.
The system has sensors that monitor conditions and strict hygiene rules mean crops can be grown without pesticides.
Edible Garden City products are harvested, packaged and delivered the same day, primarily to restaurants, but online customers can also subscribe to a regular fruit and vegetable delivery box.
Sales to restaurants slowed as Singapore closed deals to contain the coronavirus from April to June, but Ang said domestic customers tripled in the same period.
William Chen, director of the food, science and technology program at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said that urban farm development is a “way to cushion the impact of supply chain failures.”
“Skyscraper farming in Singapore is certainly a bright option,” he added.
Still, there are limits to what a country half the size of Los Angeles can accomplish, and Chen stressed that the city would still have to rely on imports of other staples, such as meat.
“We don’t have animal farms and for rice we don’t have the luxury of land,” he said. “Growing rice and wheat indoors will be very expensive, if not impossible.”
Furthermore, the lack of skilled farmers in today’s Singapore presents a challenge.
“While we can recruit people interested in agriculture, they don’t have the relevant experience,” Ang said.
mba / sr / fox / axn
