The floating fish farm, being developed by the world’s largest oil rig builder, Keppel Offshore and Marine, features extensive automation in the feeding, health-monitoring and cleaning of fish in both underwater and above-water facilities.
It is one of the next-generation farming concepts featured in the “Growing More with Less” exhibition launched yesterday at The URA Centre in Maxwell Road, organised by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) in collaboration with the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority and a number of commercial partners.
Another featured farm is Sustenir Agriculture, located in a Sembawang industrial building. It features many levels of vegetable-growing spaces, with precisely controlled lighting and other conditions that can grow vegetables in half the time of traditional farming, and with 95 per cent less water.
Dr Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State for National Development and Trade and Industry, who launched the exhibition, said the world needs to produce an increasing amount of food in an increasingly challenging environment affected by factors like urbanisation and climate change. On top of that, Singapore is faced with challenges like land scarcity and high labour costs, hence it is important to innovate to strengthen local food security as well as contribute to the global food security.
URA’s acting group director of research and development Chiu Wen Tung said the new breed of farms would not only boost production but also create new jobs attractive to young people, as they would no longer require manual labour but involve working with control systems not much different from those in a high-tech production facility.
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Source: The Straits Times, 7 September 2017