Farming for young blood

Esther Ng Today Online 28 Jan 11;

SINGAPORE - They have big dreams for Singapore's agriculture and have even unveiled a 10-year plan to increase land productivity, food security and promote tourism in the north-western part of Singapore. However, all their efforts could come to naught if the 28 farmers from the Kranji Countryside Association (KCA) cannot draw young people to the farming industry. After all, farming is hard work.

"You have to get up early in the morning and work doesn't stop - even in a storm - especially in the case of fish farming," said Metropolitan Fishery Group chief executive Malcolm Ong, 48.

Young Singaporeans who become farmers do so because they want to continue their family business and have a "passion" for farming but their numbers are low. The industry has also "never tried attracting young people", Mr Ong pointed out.

This is set to change with more educational tours to farms in the offing and "farm executives" will be hired to share the workload of conducting tours. "We have to show young Singaporeans that farming can be fun," said second-generation farmer Kenny Ong, 36, from GardenAsia.

The Singapore Environment Council's executive director, Mr Howard Shaw, also noted that the young generation have "become rather detached from nature and where we grow our food". He said: "We have to find a connection back to our roots."

Ground-Up Initiative, a non-profit organisation, is doing exactly that. Every weekend, it organises farming activities on its premises in Yishun. Its founder, Mr Tay Lai Hock, told MediaCorp he has had no problems attracting young people to participate in GUI's activities because they make its programmes fun.

However, it will be some time before young Singaporeans consider farming a "noble profession", partly because of the low pay. It would help if the Government gave it a push as it did with the cleaning industry, said Mr Tay. Still, he said: "We've got to make people understand why farming is important."

Indeed, Ms Alicious Goh, 21, who is studying banking and finance at SIM University, did an internship at GardenAsia doing events management. She told MediaCorp that, had it not been for the internship, working on a farm would not have crossed her mind.

With tours to her frog farm, JFF, increasing, "frogologist" Chelsea Wan, 27, told MediaCorp that she is looking to hire one full-time employee. But her efforts have been hampered by a lack of public transport to the area.

While there is a bus service - SMRT Service 925 - the farthest it plies from the Woodlands Interchange is Kranji Reservoir Park B, after which it heads towards Sungei Kadut and the Choa Chu Kang Interchange. There are no public buses plying along Neo Tiew Road and other roads leading to the farms. The KCA plans to work with the authorities to improve public transport to the area.