Research Centre on Sustainable Urban Farming

Farming practices and technologies have undergone remarkable development and intensification during the past several centuries. In the face of challenges posed by the climate change and population increase as well as potential disruptions caused by pandemics and natural calamities, provision of adequate food in the coming decades will require a significant change in the way we grow crop plants.

The emerging concept of urban farming has evolved with the idea of producing food plants under controlled environments. This technology combines low environmental footprint and offers us opportunities to reduce energy and water needed for crop cultivation. It will also eliminate the uncertainties associated with outdoor farming that relies heavily on farm land, good weather and water supply. This close interaction among Food, Energy and Water clearly shows that we need to develop science- and technology-based solutions for sustainable urban farming.

Mere adoption of the currently available solutions from traditional farming is grossly inadequate for indoor vertical farming with small space footprints, because this emerging sector has its own special needs. In addition, modern urban dwellers have unmet expectations in the varieties of food and health benefits as delivered through nutraceutical values of selected edible plants, their taste, texture and other value traits. Therefore, novel solutions that integrate multiple disciplines need to be developed from the core fundamental sciences, which requires multidisciplinary specialist teams to work together.

We hope to be able to make novel contributions towards the success of Sustainable Urban Farming in Singapore.