Physical Farm Tour – Greenhood Farm tour

To gain a better understanding and knowledge on the procedures of farm operations in Singapore, Earthlink NTU’s Gardening portfolio had organized a physical farm tour to provide students with first-hand experience in the operations of commercial rooftop farms in Singapore on 7 Dec 2022.
With a deeper level of appreciation achieved, they can step up their agricultural efforts towards its 30 x 30 goal, which is to meet 30% of Singapore’s nutritional needs by 2030. Greenhood emerged as one of the winners of Singapore’s first tender for urban farming on HDB carpark rooftops. During the tour, participants developed a deeper insight into Greenhood’s rooftop precision farming, cutting-edge AI controllers for automated crop management, and patent-pending Mobile Aeroponic Channel (MAC) system utilised to maximise the production of salad greens. Participants had also learnt about the essential conditions required in Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA), and received the opportunity to hear about the ongoing research by Greenhood to establish the most productive vegetable variety. As the tour comes to a close, participants were surprised by receiving the chance to taste fresh kale produced by Greenhood, and participate in a short quiz, wherein 3 lucky participants walked away with mini-hydroponic cups of basil!
Moreover, numerous participants were highly interested in the commercial and community aspects of Greenhood’s operations, with many questions on their business model, outreach and technicality. In particular, questions were raised on Greenhood’s start-up journey and future plans for expansion, which were answered by Greenhood’s knowledgeable founder, Mr Gaurav Saraf. Therefore, as observed from the Q&A sessions, it had proved to be not only engaging but effective in evoking inspiration and participants’ inquisitive nature regarding Greenhood’s future endeavours.