New urban farm can yield 33 tonnes of greens a year

A new urban farm that is able to produce 33 tonnes, or 33,000kg, of leafy greens annually within a compact space was launched yesterday.

Known as GroGrace, the farm in Jurong has an area of 650 sq m (about the size of 1½ basketball courts), with four growing floors, and has the ability to produce 70kg of leafy greens per sq m - more than four times the yield of a conventional indoor farm.

Based on data from the Singapore Food Agency, local indoor farms are able to produce 16kg of vegetables per sq m.

Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Amy Khor, who was guest of honour at the launch event, said the farm is one of the beneficiaries of the Singapore Food Agency's $50 million Agriculture Productivity Fund (APF).

The fund was launched in 2014 to help farmers boost yields and increase production capabilities to meet Singapore's "30 by 30" goal of producing 30 per cent of local nutritional needs by 2030.

The APF has supported 132 companies in adopting high-tech equipment and farming systems as well as in the test-bedding of technologies to help urban farms innovate, Dr Khor said.

She noted that GroGrace has received funding to implement its dry hydroponics systems - where plants are planted above water to enable stronger root development.

This also creates a drier microclimate around the leaves, so that the plants can absorb nutrients better.

"The farm integrates multiple layers of dry hydroponics systems with Dutch horticulture technologies, which have the potential to game-change farming towards higher productivity and sustainability," said Dr Khor.

Last year, the APF was replaced by a new $60 million Agri-Food Cluster Transformation Fund, which co-funds a higher quantum over the next five years for a wider range of food types to adopt productive and sustainable technologies and advanced farming systems.

Dr Khor said that $3.8 million has been committed so far, which funds a total of 13 projects.

The GroGrace farm, launched by Urban Farming Partners Singapore (UFPSG) - a collaboration between Singapore and the Netherlands to provide holistic solutions to the indoor farming industry - also serves as a research and development centre, said UFPSG's co-founder and chief executive Grace Lim.

She said the farm will be fully operational by October and will soon be expanding from lettuce to other types of produce such as leek, cabbage and broccoli.

Mr Wouter Vos, UFPSG's co-founder and project leader, said the farm is designed to be more energy-efficient - for instance, by harvesting rainwater to facilitate the plants' growing process.

"The GroGrace facility will also serve as a training centre for future upscaled facilities that are also utilising patented Dutch horticulture technologies," he said.

When the GroGrace facility is upscaled, it will be about 6,000 sq m and able to yield nine times the current capacity, he added.