Farmers to get grants to boost productivity through tech
SINGAPORE — Food farmers will get more help in adopting technology and navigating the administrative procedures to grow their business, Minister of State for National Development Koh Poh Koon said on Tuesday (March 7).
From April, they can get partial grants to use new productivity-enhancing technology upfront, instead of the current scheme where they wait for reimbursements.
Under this tweak to the Agriculture Productivity Fund (APF), up to 30 per cent of approved funding quantum will be disbursed to farms first. Farmers can tap three schemes under the APF — the Basic Capability Upgrading Scheme, the Productivity Enhancement Scheme, and the Research and Development Scheme. More than
S$6 million worth of projects have been approved under the APF.
During the debate on his ministry’s budget for the year on Tuesday, Dr Koh also announced that the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) will start a new scheme to help food farmers develop their business, adopt new technology and find financial support.
AVA officers will be assigned to 20 farms each, and help the farmers in these areas. The farms will be grouped according to the food type they produce.
The AVA said that while the volume has been on the uptick over the years, only vegetable farms have exceeded the local production target of 10 per cent. They now supply 12 per cent of domestic consumption volume.
For eggs, 24 per cent come from local farms, short of the 30 per cent target. For fish, it stands 5 percentage points short of the 15 per cent target.
Stressing that local production is important to Singapore’s food security because it provides a critical buffer against global supply shocks, Dr Koh said transforming the agricultural industry into a more productive one is the only way to go, since there are competing uses for land.
“We will never have enough land to grow all the food that we need to be self-sufficient,” he said. “We need to adopt modern practices and embrace technology as a multiplier to do more with less.”
