Strengthening Singapore’s Food Security
The Singapore agri-food industry will receive a S$30 million boost to speed up the production of commonly consumed food items like eggs, vegetables and fish. The package is called as 30×30 express grant and is aimed at further strengthening of Singapore’s food security as a part of its goal of meeting 30 percent of the country’s nutritional needs with food produced locally by 2030. The Ministry of Environment and Water Resources and (MEWR) and Singapore Food Agency (SFA) said in a media release that the current COVID-19 situation underscores the importance of local food production, as part of Singapore’s strategies to ensure food security.
Open Grant to be Launched Soon
The open grant call is expected to be launched in mid-April. In this, the local farmers producing eggs, leafy vegetables, and fish will be invited to submit their proposals to grow more and grow faster. The government will be able to crowdsource and support ideas from agri-food industries to support and develop innovative approaches to grow food productively and sustainably by this grant call. Grant will be useful to local farmers to help defray the cost of accelerating production capacity within next 6 to 24 months.
Creating New Jobs in the Food Industry
Along with increasing the country’s capabilities to produce food locally, the agencies said this move could also create more jobs for Singaporeans in the agri-food industry and help local small and medium sized enterprises. Different agencies are also looking to identify alternative farming spaces. For example, a tender of rooftop spaces on HDB multi-storey car parks will be launched in May. A multi-agency task force will be newly formed led by Minister for Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli. This task force will drive the latest efforts to increase local food production.