It’s an ambi­tious goal: Singa­pore wants to become more inde­pen­dent from food imports and produce around 30 percent of its own food require­ments itself and in a sustain­able way by 2030. With its modern green­houses, FarmzS­tory is making a big contri­bu­tion to “30 by 30” by bringing farming from the fields into the city. After all, agri­cul­tural areas are in short supply in Singa­pore. 

Agri­cul­tural areas are in short supply in Singa­pore.

The team led by Ng Ah Ban is also respon­sible for taking Urban Farming to schools. Liter­ally. FarmzS­tory has already equipped 16 primary schools, high schools and junior colleges with a total of 28 green­houses. On these facil­i­ties span­ning 15 square meters each, pupils can sow, fertilize and harvest what the earth provides – partic­u­larly vegeta­bles such as Chinese broc­coli (Kai Lan) and rocket salad (Pak Choi), as well as Nai Bai and Kang Kong.

This not only helps the young vegetable growers to learn how farming can work in densely popu­lated cities. They also produce valu­able food for their own consump­tion and the local commu­nity. To help ensure that the vegetable growing is a success, state-of-the-art tech­nology is used in the green­houses. Including sensors to measure the temper­a­ture, humidity and nutri­ents in the ground. The green­houses also get their power from inte­grated solar systems. 

State-of-the-art tech­nology, including sensors and inte­grated solar systems, ensures optimum growing condi­tions and effi­cient plant produc­tion in the green­houses. ( Images | ebm-papst)

Fresh air for fresh vegeta­bles

Adequate air exchange is guar­an­teed by effi­cient axial fans from ebm-papst. They can be controlled contin­u­ously according to demand thanks to the installed EC motors and regu­late the oxygen content and temper­a­ture in the green­house by extracting the old air and replacing it with unused fresh air with high oxygen concen­tra­tion. This isn’t just great for the seedlings and young plants. It also create a much more pleasant work envi­ron­ment for the future urban farmers in the hot Singa­pore climate. 

The effi­cient axial fans from ebm-papst ensure optimum air exchange and regu­late the oxygen content and temper­a­ture in the green­house at FarmzS­tory in Singa­pore. (Image | ebm-papst)

EC motor tech­nology enables infi­nitely vari­able control of the axial fans – ideal for plants and employees in trop­ical Singa­pore. (Image | ebm-papst)

Future tech­nology: Fans as part of the IoT and cloud system in Lim Chu Kang’s model green­house. (Image | ebm-papst)

But vegetable growing can be improved even more. At least that’s what FarmzS­tory believes with the further devel­op­ment of its green­houses. The level of tech­nology in the process will be increased in the future. The company is already working on addi­tional features such as IoT and Cloud tech­nology in a model green­house in Lim Chu Kang – all with the goal of making urban farming more acces­sible and training a wealth of young talent in sustain­able agri­cul­ture and food produc­tion. Singa­pore fervently hopes that the coming gener­a­tions will help secure the food supply for the country with knowl­edge, prac­tical expe­ri­ence and envi­ron­mental aware­ness and work towards the “30 by 30” goal.