Sustainability

Agrifood

With only 1% of land available for food production, Singapore relies on imports for 90% of its food supply. To meet the goal of producing 30% of the nation's nutritional needs locally by 2030, Singapore enterprises must embrace agrifood tech innovation. Technologies that enhance agri-inputs and resource efficiency for highly productive urban farming systems in agriculture and aquaculture, together with innovations in alternative proteins, food side stream valorisation and solutions to enhance food safety can pave the way for sustainable and resilient food systems, contributing to long-term food security for Singapore. 

Through the integration of agrifood tech innovation in Singapore, businesses can optimise processes and reduce waste, driving the shift towards a more sustainable food ecosystem. By focusing on food waste valorisation and other transformative agrifood technologies, Singapore can unlock new opportunities in resource efficiency and food production.

Discover IPI’s curated list of agrifood tech solutions, including food waste valorisation, as we aim to strengthen Singapore's food security, ensuring resilience in the food supply chain while promoting sustainable and profitable agricultural practices.  

Extension of Crop Harvest Period Through Customised LED Light Recipes
The majority of the local indoor farmers grow crops that are harvested for their leaves. One way to increase the growth rate of such leafy greens is to provide a longer period of light. However, some of the crops grown, e.g., spinach, are long-day plants that flower when the light periods are longer than their critical day-length. While important to a plant’s life cycle, this vegetative to reproductive phase change is undesirable for farmers, not only because it shortens the harvest period hence reducing the yield, but also because it changes the taste profile. To tackle this problem, a light recipe that was able to suppress flowering was formulated. Plants grown under this light recipe showed a faster growth rate than those grown under flowering-suppressing short-day photoperiod. Moreover, they do not flower even when the light period has surpassed the critical day-length. Positive results were obtained when this light recipe was tested on spinach and arugula. This technology would work for other long-day crops, and it will be beneficial to indoor farmers who are interested to try it.
Read more >
A Decentralized Urban Farming IoT System
This Internet of Things (IoT) software architecture addresses a decentralized framework to provide the ability to exchange data between IoT devices autonomously without any centralized server. In recent years, the development of IoT applications has become increasingly complex. Thus, this technology addresses the problem by providing the ability to simplify the streaming of data to the IoT platforms over the web. The IoT platform is designed to assist modern-day farmers in monitoring the entire farm seamlessly. It can be customized to suit each farm depending on the type of sensors, machine vision camera, cloud storage, etc. Equipped with detailed data tracking and analytics to provide the most accurate growth process from start to finish. This design can be customized for other applications. The technology owner is looking for partners and collaborators to further co-develop this technology in urban farming. 
Read more >