The Digital Feed Episode 9: Urban Farming for Food-Secure and Resilient Cities
Nearly 80 percent of the food produced globally is consumed in cities. By 2050, an estimated 70 percent of the world population will live in cities. Current food systems are struggling to meet global food demand and have a large environmental footprint. Urban farming using modern techniques and technologies can enable food production using fewer resources such as land and water, and has the potential to improve food security, particularly in countries with limited resources like Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
With less than 1 percent of its land available for agricultural use, Singapore (a SIDS) imports over 90 percent of its food, making it vulnerable to disruptions in global food supply chains as was evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Government of Singapore has set an ambitious ‘30 by 30’ target to produce 30 percent of the country’s nutritional needs locally and sustainably by 2030.
Singapore is fast emerging as a global agri-food-tech hub. What is the city state doing to foster its domestic agri-food ecosystem and what can other countries facing similar challenges learn from Singapore’s experience? To know more, we invited two experts, Poh Bee Ling, Director of Agri-Technology & Food Innovation at Singapore Food Agency (SFA) and Sven Yeo, Co-founder of Archisen, an agritech company that designs, builds, and operates urban farming solutions.
Both Poh and Yeo saw eye to eye on the importance of innovation and technology to meet growing demands. This includes adopting urban farming techniques like controlled environment agriculture (CEA) and vertical farming. “There is a need for us to go deeper into how technological innovations can help improve and leapfrog productivity of farms”, remarked Yeo.
Localising food production has other benefits besides improving food security. It allows for diversification of food options and customisation to meet local preferences. Archisen carries interesting produce like wasabi-like mustard greens, tangy sorrels, and ice plants grown in Himalayan pink salt. Local production provides an avenue for affordable specialty offerings.
Poh highlighted several of SFA’s initiatives to meet the ‘30 by 30’ goal, including expansion plans for food and fish farms, co-funding schemes like the Agri-food Cluster Transformation (ACT) Fund to encourage technological adoption, and funding for innovative R&D projects such as through the Singapore Food Story R&D Programme. All these are aimed at building capability and capacity of local entrepreneurs and innovators.
Yeo noted the challenges in navigating the regulatory landscape, particularly for a new and emerging industry. He opined that the public sector could act as a catalyst for promoting novel technologies that have already proven to be beneficial in other countries and regions. He also emphasised on the importance of maintaining an open dialogue with regulatory bodies, understanding national priorities, and leveraging on existing initiatives to accelerate growth of urban farms.
Poh, however, raised an important point regarding the transferability of innovations. “It is important to understand the local context as demand from consumers, climate conditions and regulations do differ from city to city. Innovations suitable in other cities might not be as successful in land scarce, tropical Singapore, and vice versa.”
Watch the full interview here. If you prefer to listen to an audio-only version of this episode, check out our podcast channel on Spotify. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay updated on the latest initiatives of the UNDP Global Centre, Singapore. We hope you enjoyed watching or listening to The Digital Feed! 🌱
