Crops in a concrete jungle: Singapore's rooftop farms

In Singapore, several groups hope to transform the urban jungle into productive farm land by growig crops on rooftops. USA Today's Elizabeth Weise visited one.
Elizabeth Weise, USATODAY 4 Jun 15;

SINGAPORE — Urban farmers in this island nation are hoping to transform the city's forest of buildings into food-production powerhouses by nurturing rooftop crops.

The goal is to make Singapore a little less dependent on imported produce and transform its relationship with local food.

A dense landscape of skyscrapers and apartment buildings, Singapore is home to 5.3 million people. At half the size of Los Angeles, it is a finance and tech powerhouse with little land devoted to agriculture.

Fully 90% of all Singapore's food is imported and only 8% of its vegetables are locally grown, according to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore.

Now, several groups are working to turn that around using rooftop farms, which have been popping up on dozens of buildings worldwide in recent years.

"The idea is basically using a very confined piece of land that could grow a lot of food and at the same time build a community," said Allan Lim, 42, CEO and one of the co-founders of Comcrop, an urban farming collective.

The farm is located on a 6,000-square-foot rooftop in a building on Orchard Road, a high-end shopping district sometimes called Singapore's Rodeo Drive.

"Our object is to testbed and see how much food we can seriously grow on marginalized land," Lim said.

Comcrop launched in 2011. The setup process was arduous, both to build the farm's infrastructure and to get official approval. It took nearly two years of bouncing around to "every agency in Singapore," most of which viewed the idea as alien, Lim said.

When they went to the fire department for a permit, they were asked whether the farm was flammable and how they would contain the flames if it caught fire.

"So we told them, 'You know what? We have about 200 tons of water on the rooftop at any one time,'" Lim said. The fire department relented and signed off on the project.

Plants there grow from vertical racks 15-feet high filled with rows of pipes with holes drilled in them. Water is run through a growth medium inside the pipes to minimize evaporation.

Temperatures on the roof can easily reach over 100 degrees on a hot day, common in the tropics. "It's instant suntan territory up here," Lim said.

The water comes from the tap but is first cycled through large tanks of tilapia, a heat-adapted fish. Their wastes provide nutrients for the plants. As they mature, the fish are harvested and sold, giving the farm additional income.

Comcrop produces herbs and vegetables, including basil, peppermint, spearmint, tomatoes, eggplants, lemons and tomatillos.

It is overseen by staff and a host of volunteers, including the elderly, Lim said. About 20% of the food is donated to charity. The rest is sold to bars and restaurants that clamor for fresh produce, or at a local farmers market.

Farming isn't a trade most Singapore parents dream their children will embrace, said Yuen Kang, one of Comcrop's farmers.

A Singapore native, he graduated from Vermont's Middlebury College with a degree in environmental studies before coming home and working in a government job with the elderly.

When he quit to work at Comcrop his parents were "shocked," Kang, 28, said. "Farming's not really an industry that young people go into here," he said.

Today, his parents have come to terms with his choice. "They said, 'As long as you don't ask me for money, you can go do what you want,'" he said.

Comcrop's vertical farming is part of an international trend. Last year hundreds of agronomists gathered at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom for the International Conference on Vertical Farming and Urban Agriculture.

One of the speakers was Jack Ng, director of SkyGreens, a Singapore start-up that has created a hydroponic growing system that can be used on rooftops and in greenhouses.

Launched in 2012 with a demonstration farm that now grows 10 varieties of greens, Ng and his partners hope to make it easy to turn Singapore's skyscrapers into food production centers.

Another popular spot is Nong, a 30,000-foot rooftop farm created by Edible Gardens, which produces vegetables and greens on top of the city's People's Park Complex parking garage. Nong means "farmer" in Chinese.

Making Singapore's roofs productive would be a huge win, Lim said.

As he looked around at the neighboring buildings he pointed out spots of green here and there, then dismissed them as gardens full of expensive plantings that no one appreciates or visits.

"They're really a waste of time and resources. They don't grow anything anyone can use," he said.