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Singapore: 88 proposals for urban farms submitted in tender for 9 sites on rooftops of HDB multi-storey carparks

Architecture practice Woha has a 2,100 sq ft organic urban farm on its rooftop, which is tended to by the firm’s gardening club, headed by Mr Jonathan Choe. ST PHOTO: LIM SIN THAI

The sites range in size from 1,808 sq m – or one-third of a football field – to 3,311 sq m.

By Vanessa Liu
Straits Times
June 18, 2020

Excerpt:

Farms “can’t get much closer” to the community than that, he said.

Mr Low added that, if he manages to clinch the tender for the Tampines site, he plans to grow nutrient-dense food, and types of vegetables that are known to help in preventing diseases. “We also hope to incorporate waste-to-fertility elements, sustainable energy, and a more robust community outreach framework,” he added.

SFA said that the tender was part of plans to make more spaces available for commercial farming, and is one of the strategies adopted by the agency to achieve Singapore’s goal of producing 30 per cent of its nutritional needs by 2030, or the “30 by 30” goal.

The tender is also in line with HDB’s Green Towns Programme, said the agencies. The scheme seeks to cool HDB towns through the use of greenery, such as on carpark rooftops. SFA will continue to work with HDB to launch more multi-storey carpark rooftop sites for urban farming in the second half of this year, said the agencies.

Last year, SFA launched its pilot multi-storey carpark rooftop farm in Ang Mo Kio, run by local farm Citiponics. The 1,800 sq m farm atop the carpark at Block 700 in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6 can grow up to four tonnes of vegetables a month.

Read the complete article here.