Audrey Tan Straits Times 12 Oct 13;
FARMERS in Singapore are rejoicing that they no longer have to plough a lonely furrow, now that the Government has pumped in an additional $10 million into the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority's (AVA) Food Fund to improve farm operations.
Farmers such as Mr Malcolm Ong, 50, welcomed the initiative to reduce the Republic's reliance on food imports and boost productivity in the farming industry.
"Manpower is our biggest hurdle as it is not readily available," said the fish farmer.
"By finding ways to mechanise labour-intensive areas like net washing and changing, we can be more productive."
Mr Ong estimates that an automated system to do the task would cost about $200,000.
Typically, washing and changing one net manually would take four people - or half his staff size - about half a day, the owner of Metropolitan Fishery Group said.
Other farms have similar ambitions of automating labour processes to boost productivity.
Mr Wong Kok Fah, director of Kok Fah Technology Farm, which grows leafy vegetables, said his farm had successfully applied for funds in the earlier two rounds of applications to "improve farm facilities and machines to automate our manual processes".
Now that the fund is in its third tranche since its launch in 2009, Mr Wong said that plans are in place to improve "techniques, machines and facilities" at his farm.
"This will increase possibilities of bringing in new techniques and systems to increase production and efficiency," he added.
"With the improvement, we can work towards increasing food production in Singapore."
Enhancements to the fund were announced on Thursday during AVA's inaugural food industry convention at Orchard Hotel.
These include simplified eligibility criteria that no longer require farms to submit latest income statements or productivity improvement plans to apply under the Basic Farm Capability Upgrading and Technical Boosters categories, and an extended list of equipment.
But farmers feel that more can be done to enhance food security.
Owner of Bollywood Veggies Mrs Ivy Ms Singh-Lim said the $10 million was "a pittance" considering the importance of food security as Singapore imports more than "90 per cent" of its food supply.
"The recent strike at the pig farm in Batam tells us we have to be serious about issues of food security," she said.
