We thank Mr Tio Boey for his suggestions on supporting local farms, "Small local farmers need more support to survive" (Dec 23).

Singapore is a city state with limited space.

Since August 2017, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has been tendering new farmland to enable farmers affected by redevelopment plans to continue their businesses by bidding for new plots.

To ensure that limited farmland is optimised, the farmland plots are released through tenders with an emphasis on productivity and technology.

At the same time, there is a masterplan to turn the Lim Chu Kang area into a high-tech agri-food zone with infrastructure to support productive farming and enable better optimisation of land use to increase food production in a sustainable and resource-efficient manner.

As innovative farms can produce up to 10 to 15 times more food product per hectare as compared with traditional farms, the adoption of agri-tech will enable our farmers to improve productivity in a sustainable and climate-resilient way, and contribute to Singapore's 30 by 30 goal.

That is, to enhance the resilience of Singapore's food supply and meet 30 per cent of nutritional needs locally by 2030.

The Government has also introduced various funding schemes, including SFA's Agri-food Cluster Transformation (ACT) Fund which was launched earlier this year to support local farmers in their efforts to expand production capability, boost yield, raise productivity, sustainability and improve the circularity of resource use.

The ACT Fund is available for application by our local farms until Dec 31, 2025.

Besides the ACT Fund, SFA also embarked on several initiatives to promote and raise consumer demand for local produce.

We launched a campaign on the SG Fresh Produce logo in August last year, and partnered industry players, such as retailers (physical stores and online), to promote local produce via in-store promotions and point-of-sale materials.

We also collaborated with industry associations on farmers' market events organised by the Singapore Agro-Food Enterprises Federation and Kranji Countryside Association.

SFA will continue to support and work closely with local farms to ramp up production, and we hope that consumers can also join us in this endeavour by supporting our local produce and our farmers.

Alvin Yeo (Dr)
Senior Director, Joint Policy and Planning Division
Singapore Food Agency

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/forum/forum-funding-schemes-available-to-boost-yield-and-raise-productivity-of-local-farms