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SINGAPORE: Six bidders have been awarded bids for urban agriculture at nine sites on the roofs of the Housing and Development Board (HDB) multi-storey parking lots, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) said on Wednesday (September 30) and HDB.
In a joint press release, the agencies said the bids for the five individual sites and the two grouped sites were determined using a price-quality method, where price and quality attributes such as production, design and layout of the site, and the business / marketing plan were taken into account.
Each team site comprises two sites.
The unique sites, at Ang Mo Kio, Choa Chu Kang, Hougang, Tampines and Toa Payoh, were awarded to Abyfarm, IT Meng Landscape and Construction, Gaurav Saraf, Nature’s International Commodity and Red Green Collective respectively.
IT Meng Landscape and Construction was also awarded the Jurong West cluster site.
The remaining cluster site in Sembawang was awarded to Goh Lay Keow.
“Proposals from successful bidders included hydroponic and vertical farming systems with a variety of innovative features, such as IoT, blockchain technology and automated climate control,” said SFA CEO Lim Kok Thai.
“With these farming systems, the sites have the potential to collectively produce around 1,600 tonnes of vegetables a year,” he added.
READ: Raising the Roof: Cultivating Singapore’s Urban Farming Scene
Freeing up more space for commercial agriculture is one of SFA’s strategies to achieve Singapore’s goal of being able to meet 30% of its nutritional needs with locally produced food by 2030.
SFA said it would continue to work with HDB to tender for more rooftop sites in multi-story parking lots for urban agriculture in the fourth quarter of 2020.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Sustainability and Environment Minister Grace Fu said that the challenges of COVID-19 and climate change, along with other business and environmental pressures, “pose a threat to the supply of critical resources such as food “from Singapore.
And since the land here is scarce, SFA has been “opening up alternative spaces to grow food.”
“To mitigate the risks of disruption to our food supply, we set a goal of ’30 to 30 ‘last year. By 2030, our goal is to meet 30% of our nutritional needs with locally produced food. This will stimulate growth of our agri-food industry and generate new and better jobs for our people.
“As land is scarce in Singapore, SFA has been opening up alternative spaces to grow food, such as empty buildings and parking roofs, and we will be bidding for more spaces of this type,” Ms Fu said.
“Over the next several years, we will master planning the larger Lim Chu Kang area and involve stakeholders and the public in the process. In the long term, we will expand agriculture in the Lim Chu Kang area and aquaculture our coast. south, “he added.
