Agriculture Research and Innovation (AGRI) Centre has successfully led the organising of the 5th Singapore-Shizuoka Agri-Food Forum on 22 November 2024 which was hosted by Republic Polytechnic. This year, the event was held in Singapore and graced by the presence of Mr Hiroshi Masui, Vice Governor of Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, who led a delegation of Japanese government, academia and agritech companies. We received a total of 212 participants (167 physical attendees and 45 online attendees) at this forum!
Prior to the Agri-Food forum, the Japanese delegation participated in a study visit which introduced them to Singapore’s agriculture landscape. The agritech capabilities of local IHLs as well as innovative techniques used by local farms to grow food in Singapore’s urban settings were key highlights from the study visit, where the Japanese delegation visited Singrow Pte Ltd, GKE Agritech Pte Ltd and SG Veg Farms Pte Ltd.
During the Agri-Food forum, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Shizuoka Prefecture (Japan), Republic Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education was renewed from 2025 to 2030, displaying the commitment of all parties to continuing to strengthen the collaboration between Singapore and Shizuoka Prefecture in the fields of agrifood and agritechnology. The MOU’s scope covers research and development (R&D) collaborations in the field of agriculture, supporting expansion and commercialisation of agri-technologies and developed products into global markets, staff and student exchanges between the two countries, as well as the organisation of the annual Singapore-Shizuoka Agri-Food Forum. Tomato Town, a Singapore rooftop farm, and Happy Quality, a Japanese farm and agritech company, also signed an MOU, highlighting the importance of the forum as a platform for connecting and enabling collaboration between Singapore and Japanese agrifood companies to achieve greater heights in agriculture.
The theme of the forum was “Climate-Smart Agriculture: Emerging Technologies for Sustainable Agriculture”. We invited two keynote speakers, Mr Vincent Wei (Archisen Pte Ltd) and Mr Daigo Tamai (Happy Quality) who shared the experience of their respective farms in adopting technologies to combat the impacts of climate change.
Two thematic sessions comprising technical presentations and panel discussions were held on the themes of “Cultivating Superior Crops through Advanced Technologies” and “Bridging the Manpower Gap in Agriculture”. For the first session focusing on superior crops, Mr Derek Lin (Hydrogro) and Ms Hidemi Masuda (Masuda Seeds) presented their respective companies’ commitment to cultivating and developing superior crops which have higher nutritional quality. Ms Khoo Gek Hoon (AGRI Centre) moderated the panel discussion. The discussion revolved around the importance of cultivating high-quality produce which meets both farmers’ attributes and consumers’ needs and nutrient-rich crops that are of rising importance to consumers and Asian countries, as well as choosing high-quality seeds in improving crop quality besides increasing the use of technology for producing superior crops.
For the second panel discussion on agriculture’s manpower gap, Mr Ray Poh (Artisan Greens Pte Ltd) and Mr Katashi Kai (Shinnippou) shared the technology-enabled measures that their farms took to address the manpower gap in the agriculture field. They were joined by Ms Chiaki Kawamura, who moderated the panel discussion. The key takeaways include the deciding factors such as cost of investment, farm scale/ productivity benefits, plant science knowledge, worker emotion, manual/ redundant farm processes, the durability of machines, downtime of machine maintenance etc in the pursuit of automation technology to address manpower challenges. In addition, government support to develop agriculture talents as well as emphasis on elevating farm processes and environment for employee welfare were also deemed as important factors to attract and retain manpower in our urban agriculture sector.
At the forum, agritech companies and institutions of higher learning had the opportunity to showcase research-based technology solutions and forge new collaborations through interactive poster presentations, facility tours and networking sessions. It concluded with a tour of Republic Polytechnic’s state-of-the-art facilities, such as The Greenhouse and the Agriculture Technology Innovation Laboratory (ATIL).
The 5th SSAFF event was a resounding success, and all looked forward to the next iteration of the forum, which would be held in Japan in 2026.
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