• The government began leasing the plots in 2020 as part of its plans to develop local food production.
• At least a dozen rooftop farms have now sprung up in the Southeast Asian city-state.
Eyleen Goh runs a farm from the terrace of a parking lot in Singapore.
And it’s not a small operation: it supplies nearby stores with up to 400kg of vegetables a day, he says.
“Singapore is small, but we have plenty of space to park. It’s almost the dream of having farms [here] to satisfy the wishes of the citizens of the community,” he says.
At least a dozen of these rooftop farms have now sprung up in the Southeast Asian city-state.
The government began leasing the plots in 2020 as part of its plans to develop local food production. The country of another 5. 5 million people recently imports more than 90% of its food.
But the area in this densely populated island country is sparse and that means land is cheap. Singapore has some of the most expensive homes in the world.
One farmer told the BBC that the peak charge of his first parking lot meant he had to give it up and move to a less expensive place.
When BBC News visited Ms Goh’s farm, which is about a third the length of a playing field, operations were in full swing.
Workers collected, cut and packed choy sum, a leafy vegetable used in Chinese cuisine.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the facility, another worker takes care of transplanting the seedlings.
“We harvest every day. Depending on the vegetables we grow, it can range from 100 kg to 200 kg to 400 kg per day,” says Goh.
She says the farm charges about S$1 million ($719,920; $597,720), and much of the money is spent on gadgets to speed up the harvest.
Although he won subsidies, Goh says his business is still profitable.
It has 10 workers and will pay rent of about S$90,000 a year for the area and car parking, which is still being installed.
“Our installation era took care of the Covid pandemic, so the logistics were much more expensive and took longer,” says Goh.
“In addition, this is the first tender for rooftop parking that [the government] awards, so the procedure is very new to everyone,” he adds.
Farmers on Singapore’s rooftops are also looking for other tactics to make money.
Nicholas Goh, who is not like Mrs. Goh, says he managed to make money by charging other people a monthly payment for harvesting vegetables on his urban farm.
He says the concept is popular with families living nearby because “it’s a community-type approach, rather than an advertising approach. “
However, urban farmer Mark Lee says high prices have led him to move into a commercial construction that charges an “insignificant” rent, that is, a lower rent.
“In the end, vegetables are just vegetables. You can get them fresh and of the highest yielding quality, but the value to pay is limited. We’re not talking about cakes here,” says Mr. Lee.
Rooftop farms are the only way Singapore can accumulate the amount of food it grows.
Most of the country’s local products come largely from high-tech services through the government. It had 238 licensed farms in 2020, according to official figures.
Some of the farms are already successful and can increase production to generate profits, according to the Singapore Food Agency (SFA).
As a small globally connected city-state with limited resources, Singapore is vulnerable to external impacts and disruptions at source,” an SFA spokesperson told BBC News.
“That’s why it’s vital that we continually take action to protect our critical resources,” the spokesperson added.
Earlier this year, the food security factor came to the fore in Singapore when several countries in the region banned or limited key food exports.
Import-dependent governments have tried to sell their food products, as the war in Ukraine and the pandemic have raised the price of everything from staple foods to crude oil.
By 2030, Singapore aims to produce 30% of the food it consumes, more than 3 times the amount.
Professor William Chen of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore believes they deserve more for urban farms.
“There are measures like SFA productivity subsidies and normal farmers’ markets to inspire consumers to buy more products,” says Professor Chen, director of the university’s science and food generation programme.
“Maybe you can consider helping local farmers adopt technologies. . . ,” he says.
However, Sonia Akter, an assistant professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, believes that high operating prices will likely remain a major challenge for urban farmers.
“Singapore gives a lot of grants and money to the vendors who paint in this space,” she says.
“The question is whether those farms will be able to serve and be commercially viable when the government stops receiving payments. “
Back on a rooftop surrounded by towers amid Singapore’s urban sprawl, Mrs. Goh would possibly appear as a world away from classic farming.
However, he echoes the sentiments of the generations of farmers who came before: “Quitting is an option. The harder it is, the more rewarding it will be.
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