Farming in Singapore – The Issue Of Survival

In a small country like Singapore, we are constantly feeling the constrain of finding space to keep our farms. Singapore economy depends primarily on financial services, manufacturing, and tourism, hence agriculture is less prioritized. The agriculture GDP only accounts for less than 0.05% and only 1% of land is set aside for Agriculture.

Main Issue (Population, Tragedy of the Commons, DO WE HAVE ENOUGH FOOD?): A study in done in 2016 showed that Singapore produces around 22,458 tonnes of vegetables while its population consumes 524,462 tonnes. The issue is that the amount of food produced in Singapore is not enough to feed the population. 90% of our food comes from imports from Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia and other SEA countries. This makes food security a very important issue, especially in times of trade uncertainty. The common shared resource which is the land of Singapore is past its carrying capacity and we depend heavily on the friendly cooperation of other countries. With a small land mass and a growing population of now 5.8 million people, the government needs space for housing, hence the dilemma between allocating farm space Vs. housing/ industrial space.

Example of the diverse farming in Singapore