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The Ministry of Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) announced an express plan to rapidly increase local production of eggs, vegetables and fish within the next six to 24 months, called the "30x30 Express".

Originally, Singapore had planned to gradually increase our local production to meet 30 per cent of our nutritional needs by 2030, with the "30x30" plan.

New $30 million grant to support acceleration of local food production

While the original plan aimed to address the challenges to food production posed by climate change, the new express plan will put local production on the fast track.

This is due to the immediate challenges posed by the current Covid-19 situation to Singapore's food security.

To improve our food security and reduce our reliance on imports, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) is setting up a S$30 million "30x30 Express" grant to help to ramp up local production as soon as possible for the following products:

• Fish
• Eggs
• Leafy vegetables

These are commonly consumed food items in Singapore, which the nation already has capabilities to produce locally.

In the event of any disruptions to the nation's food supply, local food production will also act as a buffer.

Open grant call will be launched mid-April 2020

Local agriculture players in Singapore producing eggs, vegetables and fish will be invited to submit their proposals to 'grow more and grow faster', during the open grant call later this month, around mid-April.

The government aims to use to grant call to "crowdsource and support ideas from the agri-food industry to develop innovative approaches to grow food productively and sustainably".

In addition, the boost provided to the companies could create potential new jobs and help smaller players in the local agriculture scene.

The new grant aims to complement the current Agriculture Productivity Fund (APF) by SFA, which aids farms to use innovative and sustainable technologies and advanced farming systems.

Alternative farming spaces to be identified, such as rooftop spaces

In addition to using advanced farming systems to ramp up production, government agencies will identify alternative farming spaces, such as vacant sites and industrial spaces.

In the next month (May 2020), SFA will put out a tender for rooftop spaces on HDB Multi-Storey carparks for urban farming purposes.

At the same time, a new multi-agency taskforce, called the “30x30 Express” Taskforce, has been set up and will be chaired by Masagos Zulkifli, the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources.

The taskforce will oversee the acceleration of local food production, address the challenges with regard to setting up or expansion of farms and ensure that farms are highly productive and sustainable.

According to the press release, Masagos said that the new initiative aims to ramp up our local production and reach our 30x30 goal sooner:

“Our three strategies of diversifying food imports, growing locally and growing overseas have served us well in ensuring Singapore’s food security, even during times of supply disruption. The new 30x30 Express initiative is expected to push the envelope for local farming capacity, and accelerate our efforts to reach our 30x30 goal. We will continue to work closely with the industry to strengthen the capabilities of local food production. It is important that these efforts are augmented by the support of consumers. Demand from consumers will spur our farmers to become more productive, and allow them to reap the benefits of economies of scale. This in turn will bolster our food security, and create good jobs for our people."

Top photo via Masagos Zulkifli/Facebook