Ensuring Singaporeans don't go hungry

Ex-AVA chief working on project to create vast food bowl in China
Chang Ai-Lien, Straits Times 9 Jun 10;

YOU'D think Dr Ngiam Tong Tau has had enough on his plate over the past 30 years given his job to ensure the food we eat is safe, but that mission is small beer compared to his new project.

It is, to put it simply, to create a vast food bowl in China that can produce a reliable source of healthy veggies, fruit, milk and meat for the ever-demanding palates of Singaporeans far into the future.

As national initiatives go, this one deserves a seat at the top table.

The multi-billion-dollar undertaking will involve creating an agricultural space twice the size of Singapore that can churn out everything from pork, beef and milk to rice, strawberries and ginseng.

Dr Ngiam, the former chief of the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), tells The Straits Times: 'From production and processing to research and safety, the idea is that we will be turning out food that's ready to market, whether it's fresh, frozen or canned.

'It's our most ambitious project to date; it could well fill a very significant portion of Singapore's future food needs.'

If that is not enough to digest, the proposed 1,450 sq km food zone in Jilin in north-eastern China can serve another purpose as well - as a showcase for Singapore's renowned standards in food hygiene and its embrace of all things high-tech.

Dr Ngiam, 67, says that while Jilin's wind-swept grasslands are fertile, technology could help boost yields.

This could mean using better-quality seeds and merging small farms through cooperatives to create economies of scale.

And animal waste would be put into 'biodigestors' to produce methane for cooling and heating and to generate the farm's electricity. Any excess would go into China's national grid.

This would also prevent pollution of the waterways, adds Dr Ngiam, who is a senior consultant to Singbridge International Singapore, a Temasek Holdings subsidiary and one of the key local agencies involved in the effort.

Singapore's tough approach to disease control would be used to create an area free of foot-and-mouth disease and other livestock scourges.

Bio-security checkpoints would be set up to ensure that people disinfect their hands, clothes and footwear when going into or out of farms.

'Singapore is well known the world over for its tough safety regime and Jilin is very keen to replicate this,' he says. 'They have had sporadic outbreaks and the problem is that once this occurs, it's a big blow because you cannot export for at least six months.

'For us, sourcing for beef, pork and mutton has been very difficult precisely because our meat sources have been limited by such outbreaks.'

Turning a vision into reality

THE scope and scale of the agri-vision are certainly impressive and no one underestimates the difficulty of turning it into reality.

And so far, a vision is all there is. Work is still being done to study whether the China Jilin (Singapore) Modern Agricultural Food Zone, as it will be called, can be commercially viable, he says.

An ongoing feasibility study will take about nine months and if the project gets the nod, Singbridge and the Jilin municipal government will jointly invest in the food zone, which will take 15 years to build.

Chinese officials have said they will invest $22.7 billion in the venture. Singapore has not indicated how much it will fork out.

The project will see the Jilin city municipal government collaborating with local agencies such as the AVA and local firm Singapore Food Industries, which has taken the lead by signing a $32 million deal to set up a pig farm in the area over the next six years.

Singapore Food Industries aims to be able to produce a million pigs each year for Singapore - more than half the pork eaten here - by as early as 2020.

The Jilin project has a special resonance for Dr Ngiam, who for decades has been lobbying for Singapore to buy farmland overseas to widen its food safety net. His efforts to purchase overseas plots in the 1990s, whether Australian farmland or Argentinian pastures, fell flat because investors were uninterested. And the AVA, as a regulator, could not invest in farms.

It left him worried that when it came to the crunch, Singaporeans would go hungry.

'We needed to have an area large enough and to secure this food source for Singapore in times of a worldwide shortage,' says Dr Ngiam, a Colombo Plan scholar and a veterinarian who spent 36 years at the AVA.

'Farming is a long-term proposition. If you get the basics right, it can be sustainable for a very long time, but it's not for those looking for fast returns.'

He likens the land in Jilin to the prairies of Canada, and Iowa in the United States.

While the province is snowed under four months of the year, its rich soil and vastness make it ideal for growing all the animal feed needed for the livestock, which means lower transport costs and a smaller carbon footprint in meat production.

Jilin also has a good track record in logistics and is near the port of Dalian. The mountains in the east and south and wetlands and rivers in the north make it easier to control diseases.

One area of possible concern is China's poor reputation in food safety but Dr Ngiam is confident that will not tarnish the Jilin project.

'This problem can be overcome because we're going to enforce Singapore's stringent safety standards and give it the Singapore mark of safety and quality. That's how people will trust us.'

While this could be its biggest overseas project, the AVA is not one for putting all its eggs in one basket.

It has thrown its food security net far and wide, netting fish from Namibia, harvesting rice from Vietnam and eggs from the US to complement the usual regional sources.

The food watchdog has also been working to provide Indonesia with the technology to produce vegetables for export to Singapore, to add to its traditional food sources such as Malaysia and Thailand.

Besides Jilin, Dr Ngiam is also in negotiations to use a 70 sq km area in Sichuan, one-tenth the size of Singapore, to produce cheap organic fruit, vegetables, milk, herbs and even tea for another Singapore-based supermarket chain here.

The food safety adviser for NTUC FairPrice, who helped the supermarket chain develop its own successful brand of Pasar Organic vegetables ranging from sweet potato to kangkong sourced from Thailand, says: 'It's all about giving people a wider choice for their food.'

But this has been possible because of his sustained efforts over the years in setting up a rigorous inspection structure to check for contamination and react to any animal disease outbreak.

'With disease, it's all black and white, because if you allow for grey areas then something will slip in, not only bird flu but other threats as well,' he says.

'We put in such stringent checks because it's much easier to anticipate or prevent an outbreak than to deal with it after it happens.'

Funding agricultural research

NO ONE is happier than him to see more money now being pumped into agricultural research, which he feels is as important as biomedical research because it could lead to potential money-spinners like quick tests for contaminants to new me-thods of harnessing small spaces to maximise yields.

The AVA has set up a $5 million food fund to support people here who venture into farming, particularly to produce chicken, pork, fish, eggs, leafy vegetables or rice.

It will also help pay for feasibility studies on investments in overseas food zones, contract farming and sourcing from places that are not major exporters to Singapore.

The aim of all these is to eventually help Singapore meet its goal of raising local production of fish from 4 per cent of domestic demand now to 15 per cent, eggs from 23 per cent to 30 per cent and leafy vegetables from 7 per cent to 10 per cent.

Dr Ngiam is confident these quotas can be met and exceeded.

'What we need is a multi-pronged approach, to bring engineering companies here to work with our farms to develop efficient land-based 'fish factories' or come up with treatment facilities for poultry to convert waste into fertilisers, minus the stench.

'I believe we can do enough so that even if our outside supplies are cut off, we will have enough to live on for six months in terms of fresh vegetables, eggs and fish at least.'

Veteran veterinarian
Straits Times 9 Jun 10;

VETERINARIAN Ngiam Tong Tau has been at the forefront of Singapore's agriculture and veterinary developments for the past 26 years.

Dr Ngiam, 67, worked at the Primary Production Department (PPD) and the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) for 36 years.

He joined PPD in 1969 and was appointed director of primary production in 1984.

He became chief executive officer and director-general when PPD was restructured into a statutory board, AVA.

Dr Ngiam established a food safety programme to ensure a safe and sustained food supply and was instrumental in developing agrotechnology parks and aquaculture in Singapore.

He also helped build up Singapore's lucrative ornamental fish and orchid industries.

His efforts were instrumental in keeping Singapore free of exotic infectious diseases in plants, animals and fish, such as rabies and bird flu. He retired in 2005.

A Public Administration Meritorious Medal winner, he was adjunct professor at the National University of Singapore's school of biological sciences from 1993 to 2005.

He now sits on the boards of five food and agriculture-related companies, and chaired the Genetic Modification Advisory Committee - the national GM watchdog - from 2000 to April this year.

Dr Ngiam is executive vice-president (special projects) at United Engineers, a listed environmental engineering and construction company.

He also provides consultancy and technical support services in areas such as veterinary medicine, food safety and agrotechnology, and waste management and treatment to five companies in Singapore, Vietnam and China.

These include integrated food company Singapore Food Industries and Temasek Holdings subsidiary Singbridge International Singapore.

He is the younger brother of former top civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow, 73. His wife, Nina, is a housewife, and they have two children: a daughter, 38, a doctor, and a son, 35, an architect.

Of cats and dogs
Straits Times 9 Jun 10;

Q Speculation is rife as to whether Singapore allows in genetically modified (GM) foods and why. Care to explain?

Yes, it does, mainly corn and soya beans and products made from them. I think most Singaporeans accept GM produce here is safe.

So far we have not seen any reports pointing to GM foods causing harm to human beings; in the United States, people have been eating such crops for 20 years.

Q Are bird flu and other such diseases a thing of the past now?

The threat is always there; that's why biosecurity is so important in Singapore.

It hasn't always been easy.

During the bird flu outbreak, we initially had to work very hard to persuade the chicken farms just to provide netting so that wild birds could not enter.

Now they have done much more to ensure the farms are safe, such as perimeter fencing and restricting visitors.

Having said that, diseases are unpredictable. Now and then, they strike even countries with very strict measures in place.

Q Why are cats still not allowed to be kept in HDB flats?

If we want to do so, then owners will need to have the discipline to make sure the cats do not get out and create a nuisance to their neighbours.

If they can do that, then why not?

My feeling is that cats, in that sense, are no different than other pets such as dogs, which also cause problems because of barking. It all boils down to educating people and being considerate.