'A transitional phase': Food security expert not worried by drop in local production of vegetables and seafood, Singapore News
The challenges facing Singapore's agriculture sector — which have led in a dip in local production of vegetables and seafood — reflect a transitional phase for local farms, a food security expert told AsiaOne on Friday (June 6).
Professor William Chen, director of the Nanyang Technological University's (NTU) Food Science and Technology Programme, added that it is still "premature" to deem the Government's goal of producing 30 per cent of the country's nutritional needs locally by 2030 a failure.
On Thursday, a report released by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) showed that just three per cent of the vegetables consumed in Singapore were grown locally, down from 3.2 per cent in 2023 and 3.9 the year before.
Local production of seafood dropped from 7.3 per cent in 2023 to 6.1 per cent in 2024, which SFA attributed in its Singapore Food Statistics report that it is partly due to the "restructuring of a few fish farms in Singapore".
Prof Chen said while the findings from SFA's report looks "disappointing", he sees several positive signs which are encouraging to the sector.
Local production of eggs increased by 13 per cent in 2024. The three farms in Singapore produced 34.4 per cent of all eggs consumed in 2024, up from 31.9 per cent.
Prof Chen's echoed SFA's observation that the increase is due to farm upgrades and improve operational efficiencies.
"We've been (producing eggs) since the late '60s, and over the years we have gone through technological adoption and integration… and now we only have three egg farms but we produced so much more eggs," he said.
Like eggs, vegetables saw an increase in productivity in 2024 — from 227.2 tonnes per hectare per year in 2023 to 231.4 tonnes per hectare per year in 2024.
Seafood productivity also saw an increase of 38.6 tonnes per hectare per year in 2023 to 40.7 tonnes per hectare per year in 2024.
While overall output has declined, Prof Chen noted that the increased efficiency in local vegetable and seafood production is an "encouraging" development.
"The number of farms is lower over the years, but the willingness to adopt technology is higher," he said. "What we see now is a transition… we must let go some traditional practices to free up space for new players with higher level of technology readiness."
Speaking to the media, Damian Chan, chief executive of SFA, said that the broad plan for the sector is to focus not on the number of farms in Singapore, but on ensuring that farms can be productive and financially viable.
This is done through the $60 million Agri-food Cluster Transformation Fund, which will help farms adopt technologies such as advanced, automated farming equipment and infrastructure.
"High productivity farming is still a nascent sector in Singapore and globally as well. So it needs more time to develop, mature and for our farms to evolve their business models to make it more economically viable for them," said Chan. 'Too early' to write off 30 by 30 goal
Since 2019, Singapore has had an ambitious "30 by 30" goal yesterday to produce 30 per cent of Singapore's nutritional needs locally by 2030.
But in March, then Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Koh Poh Koon said that the target is being reviewed.
While local food production in 2024 made up less than 10 per cent of total demand, Prof Chen said it is still too early to write off the Government's plan for the sector.
External factors, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions, have disrupted the global supply chain, he added.
"So, if we look at everything as a whole, we are only talking about two, three years of progress," said Prof Chen.
He added that, just like how egg production in Singapore took years to bear fruit, the Government's plans on leveraging technology in local farms take time to be economically viable.
"The number is there as a goal, to align people together. It's not for people to come back and question, 'how come we could not make it right?'"
[[nid:718214]]
chingshijie@asiaone.com
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