How Singapore is turning multi-storey car parks into farms

Eyleen Goh runs the farm from the best deck of a car park in Singapore.

And this is not a small operation – this supplies nearby merchants with up to 400kg of vegetables each day, she says.

“Singapore is quite small but we have many car parks. It is virtually the dream to have farms [here] to meet the requirements of residents in the community, ” she states.

At least a dozen of the rooftop farms have sprouted up across the South East Oriental city state.

The federal government started leasing away the unusual and building plots in 2020 included in its plans to improve local food production. The country of 5. 5m people presently imports more than 90% of its food.

But space in this densely populated island country is scarce which means land is not really cheap. Singapore has its own of the world’s most expensive property.

One character told the BBC that the high price of his first carpark plot meant which he had to give it up and move to a cheaper area.

When BBC News visited Microsoft Goh’s farm, which is about the third of the size of a soccer field, operations were in full swing.

Workers were picking, trimming and packing choy amount , a leafy green vegetable used in Chinese cooking.

On the other end from the facility meanwhile, another employee was active re-potting seedlings.

“We are harvesting each day. Depending on the vegetables we are growing, it can vary from 100kg to 200kg to 400kg daily, ” Ms Goh says.

She says starting the plantation cost around S$1m ($719, 920; £597, 720), with a lot of the money being spent on equipment to help accelerate harvesting.

Although she has received several subsidies, Ms Goh says her business is not profitable yet.

She has 10 employees and pays a rent of close to S$90, 000 per year for the space and another car park site, which is still being setup.

“Our setting up period happened during the Covid pandemic, so logistics were way more costly and took a longer time, ” Ms Goh explains.

“Moreover, it was the first rooftop carpark tender awarded [by the government] therefore the process was very new to everyone, inch she adds.

Singapore’s rooftop farmers can also be finding other ways to create money.

Nicholas Goh, who is not related to Ms Goh, states he has managed to make money by charging people a monthly fee to harvest vegetables at his urban farm.

He says the idea is particularly popular with family members who live nearby as “it is a community kind of technique, rather than a commercial approach”.

However , another urban farmer, Mark Shelter, says high expenses have driven him to move to an commercial building that costs a “negligible” we. e. lower rent.

“Vegetables are eventually just vegetables. You will get it at the freshest and best quality yet there is limitation to how much one would pay. We’re not talking about truffles here, ” Mr Lee says.

Rooftop farms are not the only method Singapore aims to improve the amount of food this grows.

Most of the nation’s home-grown produce originates from high-tech facilities which are heavily subsidised from the government. It had 238 licensed facilities in 2020, according to official figures.

A few of the farms are already rewarding, and can expand their own production to increase income, the Singapore Foods Agency (SFA) says.

“Food safety is an existential issue for Singapore. Like a globally connected little city-state with restricted resources, Singapore is usually vulnerable to external shocks and supply disruptions, ” an SFA spokesperson tells BBC Information.

“This is why it is necessary that we continuously take steps to secure our essential resources, ” the spokesperson adds.

Recording, the issue of food security came into sharp focus in Singapore whenever various countries in the region prohibited or limited exports of key meals .

Governments reliant on imports tried to protect their meals supplies as the Ukraine war and the outbreak pushed up the price of everything from staple meals to crude oil.

By 2030, Singapore aspires to produce 30% from the food it utilizes itself – greater than three times the current quantity.

Professor William Chen of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University says more support ought to be offered to urban facilities.

“There are procedures in place such as efficiency grants from SFA, and regular farmers’ markets to encourage consumers to buy more local produce, ” says Prof Chen, who is a movie director of the university’s meals science and technologies programme.

“Perhaps assisting local farmers to adopt simple technologies… may be considered, ” he admits that.

However , Sonia Akter, an assistant professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, thinks high operating costs are likely to remain a significant challenge for urban farmers.

“Singapore is offering a lot of subsidies plus financial support in order to entrepreneurs who are doing work in this space, inch she says.

“The question is whether these farms will be able to function and be commercially viable when the government support stops flowing. inch

Back on a rooftop surrounded by tower system blocks in the midst of Singapore’s urban sprawl, Ms Goh may seem a global away from traditional farming.

However , she echoes the sentiments of generations of farmers who have come before her: “Giving up is not an option. The greater challenging it is, the greater rewarding it will be. ”

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