Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis (Sengkang): Chairman, I wish to request that MSE share with us a progress update on the Lim Chu Kang Masterplan. The Lim Chu Kang Agri-Food Production Hub has been positioned as a key initiative to support Singapore’s “30 by 30” ambition. The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) had earlier said that a detailed Masterplan will be published by 2023. Care needs to be taken to create the conditions to help Lim Chu Kang become a successful agri-food cluster.
One question to consider is whether a clustering concept is suitable for agriculture in Singapore. Clustering works if there are true economies of scale, which may not exist if different farms at Lim Chu Kang choose to grow different produce. Indeed, vertical farms survive by differentiating their products for niche markets where prices are higher, but demand is also limited. It would be difficult for vertical farms to compete on a large scale in Singapore, where most households would prefer cheaper produce imported from Malaysia and elsewhere, for example.
Another stated objective of the Lim Chu Kang Masterplan is to create good jobs for Singaporeans, but finding locals who want to commute there may be a far greater challenge than we anticipate. Has SFA considered a decentralised model instead? For example, we could consider siting indoor farms in under-utilised buildings or residential areas. Singapore’s growing population of plant hobbyists is potentially a good source of farmhands, but long commutes could be a deal breaker for them.
Returning to our food security goals, food security is about how we feed the masses during times of crisis. So, to what extent will calorific efficiency be considered when SFA makes decisions about which crops should be grown under the Lim Chu Kang Masterplan? This is an important question because the high-end kale that a vertical farm needs to sell to be commercially viable is not nearly as valuable as a sweet potato during a crisis. In essence, it is not clear to me how future tenants at Lim Chu Kang will balance commercial viability with food security objectives.
Perhaps, we need to have a larger conversation about how serious we are about ensuring food security by farming locally and what amounts of financial resources would be required to achieve this.
Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment
4 March 2024
https://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/#/sprs3topic?reportid=budget-2370
Office of the Leader of the Opposition 