Food Security

Singapore is currently only producing 13% of its vegetable consumption. With little farming land available, Singapore relies heavily on imports from other countries. Due to increasing focus on food security, the alternative to solve land scarcity problem is to build greenhouses on concrete rooftop. Although concrete rooftop greenhouse are able to keep pests out, there is a signifcant heating problem which severely inhibits the growth of the vegetables. Therefore, there is a need for a rooftop greenhouse that is able to actively cool itself to avoid such problem. This technology offer is a modular rooftop greenhouse farming system (hydroponics) capable of producing vegetables on concrete roofs to meet the local demand while reducing over-reliance on imports. The design of the greenhouse farming system enables cooling and does not heat up, thus allowing the growth of pest-free vegetables. The system is approximately the size of a typical carpark lot (2.5 x 5 m). The production rate is 30 kg per month (2.5 x 5 m size) and requires minimal human intervention. The technology offer comprises both the farming system and its operation know-how. The modular rooftop greenhouse farming system can be set-up within 3 days or scaled-up when required with guaranteed vegetable growth. The break-even cost of one greenhouse is about 3 years. The technology owner is seeking to out-license their technology.

Different plant species have different nutrient requirements. The current practice of urban farming uses a generic hydroponic nutrient solution that is suitable to most plant types, and a crude sensing system that only measures total ion content in the solution. This approach often results in nutrients deficiency and/or overloading and hence requires consistently monitoring. Overloading of nutrients not only increases the input costs, it also results in greater quantities of contamination in effluent to be disposed after harvest.  A targeted hydroponic nutrient solution reduces the need to periodically adjust the nutrient. The technology provider has studied and formulated different nutrient recipes that had shown improved yield compared to commercial products. This ensures the best growth for each crop type. It also reduces common problem stemming from imbalanced nutrient, e.g. leaf chlorosis due to nutrient deficiency. All these translate to a better yield and a more marketable produce for the farmers. Formulations developed include Mizuna, Kale, Lettuce, Mustard, Kalian, and Caixin. The technology provider is seeking for licensing partners from the agriculture industry.

The presence of heavy metals in food or feed powders involves contamination of the food chain and potential harm to public health, as such, rapid detection is a time-critical issue. The uncertainty about food safety caused by the possible presence of heavy metals is of concern to consumers and regulatory authorities and this is typically addressed by increasing the testing frequency of food or feed samples. However, existing testing methods are often time-consuming and require highly skilled laboratory personnel to perform the testing. This technology employs spectroscopic imaging methods and machine learning techiniques to rapidly detect heavy metals in food or feed samples. The machine learning model can perform a multi-class differentiation of the various heavy metals based on spectroscopic measurements. It is also able to predict the concentration of heavy metals present in food or feed powders using spectroscopic measurements. Minimal sample preparation is required for this method, allowing for the rapid screening of food or feed powder samples. The technology owner is interested in collaboration with companies working with food powders, with an interest in heavy metal content within food powders.   

This technology offer helps to address the problems of global warming, food security crisis and energy crisis. With the increase in human population and rapid urbanisation, the change in weather patterns and increase in food demand has been inevitable. One of the major concerns faced in Singapore, due to global warming, is the urban heat island effect. This occurs when urban areas in cities have a higher air, surface and soil temperature than rural areas. Initiatives for high-rise greenery has been put in place to help solve the problem. However, there has been problems with limited space and high maintenance cost for these greeneries. Rooftop hydroponics farming is a possible solution to offset the running costs of rooftop greeneries or even generate profits for rooftop greeneries as it produces fresh produce, while simultaneously reducing the urban heat island effect. The reduction in urban heat island is due to a combination of green and blue body acting as a thermal buffer and contributing to the building sustainability (due to reducing in cooling costs). This initiative addresses the constraints of limited land, as solar energy generators require large areas for photovoltaic panels to be laid. This technology offer aims to provide an integrated solution to this economic challenge for environmentally sustainable urban planning. This Technology Offer is a luminescent solar concentrator that enables both power generation by photovoltaic modules, as well as efficient urban rooftop farming.

Food tracking and traceability systems can utilize Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and Internet-of-Thing (IoT) sensors to streamline the workflow of food supply chain management. Such a traceability system mitigates the complex business processes and speeds up the workflow of working through multiple business owners along the nodes in the value chain. This Technology Offer is a DLT application that can be used to manage the food supply chain. The technology aims to obtain transparency, ease of transactions and speed of delivery, synchronization, tracking and security. As an example, IoT sensors can be attached to livestock to obtain information about them from the source, and is uploaded to the ledger data of the node. When the livestock is shipped to the manufacturer, shipment tracking data can be uploaded. The transport is thus done with trackable ownership, possession and telemetry parameters such as location, temperature, humidity and activity. The manufacturer then processes the livestock, weighs the meat, packs and labels them. The label has a unique cryptographic QR code or NFC tag that links to the data citing the origins of the meat. The packaged meat is then shipped to the distributors, and eventually reaches the buyer. The final buyer can access a complete record of information and trust that the information is accurate and complete.

The majority of the local indoor farmers grow crops that are harvested for their leaves. One way to increase the growth rate of such leafy greens is to provide a longer period of light. However, some of the crops grown, e.g., spinach, are long-day plants that flower when the light periods are longer than their critical day-length. While important to a plant’s life cycle, this vegetative to reproductive phase change is undesirable for farmers, not only because it shortens the harvest period hence reducing the yield, but also because it changes the taste profile. To tackle this problem, a light recipe that was able to suppress flowering was formulated. Plants grown under this light recipe showed a faster growth rate than those grown under flowering-suppressing short-day photoperiod. Moreover, they do not flower even when the light period has surpassed the critical day-length. Positive results were obtained when this light recipe was tested on spinach and arugula. This technology would work for other long-day crops, and it will be beneficial to indoor farmers who are interested to try it.