SINGAPORE – Urban Farming Partners Singapore (UFPSG), an urban farming initiative partnership between Singapore and the Netherlands, has received funding support to facilitate the construction of a US$3 million state-of-the art indoor tech farm in Singapore.
With the funding support, received from the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) under the Agriculture Productivity Fund (APF), the urban farming initiative said that it will take the next step towards strengthening Singapore’s food supply chain and paving the way to food security.
Singapore has set an objective to achieve long-term food security by produce enough food locally to meet 30% of the country’s nutritional needs by 2030.
In 2017, Singapore partnered with the Netherlands and formed the Urban Farming Partners Singapore as a total solution provider for urban farms, integrating proven patented technologies and expert-backed worldwide operations with a vision is to contribute considerably to food security in Singapore, as well as Asia.
The initiative was co-founded by Wouter Vos, director of the Urban Farming Partners Holding in the Netherlands, who has since then taken steps to actualize the vision together with Henk van Eijk, his fellow director.
“We started our journey since 2017 when we presented our grand vision for food sustainability and food security in and around cities globally at the World City Summit in Singapore,” said Wouter Vos.
Wouter said that this year, UFPSG will initiate construction of the US$3 million state-of-the-art indoor farm in Singapore, which will be partially funded by SFA and will be the first in Singapore to utilise Dutch technology.
“It will be located inside the premises of HSL Waterfront @Penjuru at 42D Penjuru Road in Singapore, where all types of lettuce, baby leaves, herbs as well as other crops like spring onion and fennel will be produced in a fully-controlled indoor growing environment,” Wouter explains.
According to the project’s directors, the farm can potentially produce 33 Tonnes of healthy and fresh, ready-to-eat produce for the Singapore market.
The indoor farm will also integrate circular processes like the harvest of rainwater and solar power among other sustainable proven technologies.
“’Local for Local’ and ‘The Circular Economy’ are no longer just buzzwords. The COVID-19 pandemic makes it even more apparent that we need to restructure our critical systems globally more than ever. It is time to make a notable difference with our way of life with food,” said Grace Lim, UFPSG’s Director and project representative in Singapore.
Commenting on the project Melvin Chow, Senior Director of SFA’s Food Supply Resilience Division said: “We are glad to see strategic collaborations between our local agri-food industry and their overseas counterparts, as this results in the transfer of innovative and productive technology to Singapore.”
“Harnessing technology to grow more within our constraints will need to be the new norm for our agri-food industry as we strive towards ’30 by 30’. We will continue to support farms that are keen to develop technological capabilities.”
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