Cultivating Future Farmers — Singapore’s Kok Fah Technology Farm
The Singaporean government aspires to lead the world in Smart Agriculture and technological innovation. But the big question remains where will these futuristic farmers come from?
To get a better sense of Singapore’s past and future farming techniques I decided to head up north to Kranji — Singapore’s largest farm district, and one of the 6 agro-industrial parks on the island. In a country with limited agricultural specialization, I thought it would be interesting to speak with some of the longtime farmers at the forefront of the country’s agricultural technologies.
Kok Fah Technology Farm is a local family-owned business that has sold leafy vegetables across Singapore for the past 30 years. Daily operations are run by the 2nd generation of the family, including Mr Wong Kok Fah and his three brothers who took over from their father in 1979.
To clarify, Kok Fah farms is not a Controlled Environment Farm or a Plant Factory, like other facilities noted in Japan. Rather, Kok Fah farms represents a perfect example of a traditional soil based farm with aspirations to redefine Singaporean farms through a variety of new high efficiency technologies — specifically hydroponics.
I was curious to learn more about their triumphs and failures on their journey to pioneer commercial Hydroponic growing in Singapore. This may be an example of an emerging “hybrid land + indoor” farm of the future.
Like farms around Singapore and, moreover, the rest of the world, Kok Fah faces a massive challenge in how to strategically upgrade to better farming technologies — let alone upgrade to an indoor farm.
Having recognized the importance of investing in agricultural technologies early on, KFTF introduced various high-tech machinery and equipment to assist in the farming processes so as to bring about the improved level of efficiency and productivity. On average the soil based farm produces about 3 tons of veggies a day, which are processed, packaged and stored on site. To also ensure the freshness and quality of local produce, KFTF incorporated cold chain storage, one of the most efficient techniques to reduce spoilage and pre-sold food waste.
Singapore — A Tropical Nightmare
Despite the warm tropical climate and lush South East Asian jungles, Singapore is a terrible place to farm without the right precautions. It is a highly variable climate, with high humidity and hot weather almost year round. Depending on the season, intense rainstorms and precipitous drops in temperature can destroy a whole crop cycle in a day. Natural pests like mites, DBM moths and tropical fungi can quickly decimate crops from the air, soil and water.
Moreover, seasons are becoming more variable — even making national news like today, where temperatures dropped below 73 degrees, causing public fear and panic in what can only be described locally as “blizzard conditions”.
But for farmers, these weather changes and temperature variations are very serious, and prompting strategic conversations in investments for controlled environment technologies, making indoor farms all the more alluring — despite a hefty price tag.
Transition opportunity to Hydroponics
Kok Fah farms continues to produce a majority of their produce in the soil, while mostly protected by the elements through a system of enclosed smart shading and highly automated irrigation. Over the past few years, however, they have made serious investments in new hydroponic systems, testing a variety of methods in their R&D farm.
While their hydroponic facility is not yet fully commercial due to the small scale of production, they are strategically testing plants and systems to provide the best combination for growing edible plants across Singapore. Like many farmers, they are uncertain about adopting new system before exhaustively testing through a phase based approach.
One of the biggest drivers for adopting hydroponic systems is soil, or more specifically the lack thereof. For farms like Kok Fah, preparing, tilling and clearing soil beds requires a massive amount of time, labor and chemicals. While some systems use potted soil and others use no soil at all, hydroponics may, in selected circumstances, be a lifesaver to the traditional soil farmer. Moreover, the systems are built at waist level, saving the nation’s agricultural workforce from a heightened risk of chronic lower back pain.
And the best part, plants grow 20% faster in these hydroponic systems, allowing farmers to increase their yields on a fraction of the land while using only a fraction of the water.
But what about the taste? It’s true that taste can vary modestly depending on how it is grown, but by using some soil in these combination systems, farmers have reduced much of that variability. Some of these crops provide more healthy vitamins and nutrients than their soil based counterparts. And Kok Fah farms has worked with local research institutions to nutritionally verify each of their tested products. Again, this may be an example of the benefits of emerging “hybrid land + indoor Ag” strategies.
The Challenges Ahead
There are enough benefits to make a farmer think twice about upgrading from soil based production to hydroponic. But there are still massive challenges to buy and develop these systems, let alone make them commercially viable.
While Kok Fah farms continues to maintain profitability with their primary soil farms, they require a combination of additional profit and grants to fully develop and convert their soil systems to Hydroponics.
But money isn’t a guarantee of success, as farmers face an incredible amount of variability in plant biology, growing systems, pests, temperatures and water quality. Reliability is critical. Finding a solution requires time and testing to make sure their grown product is exactly what the consumer is looking for.
Lastly, Hydroponics do have technical issues, and training a farming workforce to supervise, adjust and maintain these computer run systems requires time and expertise.
Farmers = Innovators
I think it is a disservice to think that the farmers of the future and vertical farms will only start cropping up at polytechnic universities or out of thin air. Despite the fancy gadgets of new indoor and plant factory farms, existing farmers represent some the best resources in practical agricultural knowledge and plant physiology.
They are also incredible problem solvers — navigating difficult challenges from biology to engineering and financial operations. Nothing is easy about their job, yet they are often defined by the quality, as well as the quantity, of the crops they produce.
Kok Fah represents a farm well on its way to the future of smart and efficient food production. But their challenges are not unique, and will require new strategies and support systems to help existing farmers quickly adopt emerging technologies, thereby allowing them to farm more with less. In the quickly unfolding era of climate change, efficiency will be the driver of innovations we can’t afford to miss.
