Farming faces a multitude of issues that encompass both environmental and economic concerns. Two significant challenges are emissions and the rising cost of operations.
Besides a few traditional open field farms in Lim Chu Kang, new entrants tend to veer towards rooftop farming, open air vertical farming and indoor farming.
While indoor farming is more tech driven and climate resilient, their operating costs are also much higher, requiring significant investments in machinery and technology.
For example, local farmers have told me that a 200 sq m rooftop farm costs about S$500 per month to operate whereas more than S$7,000 a month is needed for an indoor farm of the same size.
Finding the right trade-off may not be easy. On one hand, traditional open field farms may require less energy and technology. However, costly manpower is needed, and the production yield is lower than indoor farming and heavily dependent on weather conditions.
On the other hand, indoor farms are climate resilient and yield much higher production with fewer manpower needed. However, the operation is far more costly, especially in terms of energy use.
Environmental considerations come to the fore as well. It is estimated that to produce 1,000kg of lettuce, 540kg of CO2 emissions are generated from traditional open field farming. Indoor farms and rooftop vertical farms generate 5,744kg and 158kg of CO2 emissions respectively to produce the same amount of lettuce.