ABSTRACT
Dry rice was first introduced to Singapore out of necessity by the wartime Japanese administration in Singapore. In the 3-year Food Sufficiency program, the ‘Grow More Food Campaign’ motivated Singaporeans to cultivate common crops like dry rice using all available spaces including residential areas, roadsides, and the majestic Padang square (Chia, 2022). Despite the Campaign, Malaya (including Singapore) failed to reach self-sufficiency because many residents were not sufficiently trained for agricultural activities (Chia, 2022). After Singapore became fully independent as a nation-state in 1965, Singapore opted for industrialization programs, overshadowing the agricultural industry and dry rice cultivation for the rest of the 20th century, before a series of crises (the food shortfall before the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis/AFC or the initial stages of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic) revived high tech rice cultivation in Singapore. Spearheaded by senior principal investigator Dr Yin Zhongcao of Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory research institute who headed research and trials work on rice from 2008, his team worked on the Temasek Rice that was inter-bred from over six varieties (including Southeast Asian jasmine rice) of rice to resist environmental conditions like floods and droughts and bacterial/fungal diseases (Yong, 2016). Singapore achieved a breakthrough in growing rice on wall-mounted urban vertical farm at Block 146 Tampines Avenue 5 (Zheng, 2022). The rice is grown at a housing estate with government flats and apartment blocks where more than 80% of Singaporeans live in well-run world-class public housing. Able to meet the national initiatives of reaching the "30-by-30" objective of meeting 30% of Singaporeans’ nutritional requirements through local food supply by 2030, there are now calls to clone the vertical farming facilities to other public housing areas (Zheng, 2022).
Keywords: rice, paddy, Singapore, Myanmar, Temasek Rice, dry rice
THE 1940S: UNDER JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION.
Singapore has flat terrains and no mountains, its tallest hilly area is Bukit Timah Hill standing at only 164 m. This makes Singapore ideal for dry rice cultivation. Dry rice was first introduced to Singapore out of necessity by the wartime Japanese administration in Singapore. The ‘Grow More Food Campaign’ that began during the Japanese wartime administration was meant to stifle inflation and work around Allied embargo, thus calls went out for food self-sufficiency through indigenous cultivation by urbanites, civil servants, students and prisoners-of-war (POWs) (Chia, 2022).
The Campaign was managed by the Agricultural and Forestry Section of the Special Municipality and the Overseas Chinese Association with the mass media printing farming tips by the Agricultural Departments for all to read, and radio propagation of farming messages too (Chia, 2022). In the 3-year Food Sufficiency program, the ‘Grow More Food Campaign’ motivated Singaporeans to cultivate common crops like dry rice using all available spaces including residential areas, roadsides, and the majestic Padang square (Chia, 2022).
Starting from 1944, the Japanese wartime authorities began to make such planting activities mandatory at the threat of punitive measures for subversion, given the acute need to build up supplies or rice and other commodities (Chia, 2022). Despite the Campaign, Malaya (including Singapore) failed to reach self-sufficiency because many residents were not sufficiently trained for agricultural activities and others were pining for the British authorities to return to the island so they did not take up the farming call (Chia, 2022).
THE 1950S AND THE SECOND HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY: LAST ARCHIVAL PHOTOGRAPHIC GLIMPSES OF RICE CULTIVATION.
In the post-war period, there are at least two archival photos of Malay Singaporean women carrying out small-scale wet paddy rice cultivation in Singapore in the National Library Board (NLB) photo archives PictureSG. Both are dated back to 1950. One of them shows two Malay women planting the paddy shoots at the sawah (meaning ‘field’ in the Malay language) with many helpers to fasten up the pace of work in the album "Life in a Paddy field", part of a compiled album titled "Photographs by R.K. Tyers. Staff Straits Steamship Co., Ltd. Singapore" (Tyers, 1950). Another 1950s photo show an elderly Malay woman holding paddy shoots tending to a family-run paddy field with a co-worker and they were decked in customary Malay costume with skirts rolled up to the knees (Tyers, 1950).
After Singapore became self-governing as part of Malaya in 1959, achieved independence in 1963 as part of Malaysia and fully independent as a nation-state in 1965, Singapore opted for industrialization programs starting with import substitution and then export orientation, overshadowing the agricultural industry and dry rice cultivation for the rest of the 20th century, before a series of crises (the food shortfall before the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis/AFC or the initial stages of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic) revived high tech rice cultivation in Singapore.
THE 2000S: GENESIS OF HIGH TECH RESEARCH.
Spearheaded by senior principal investigator Dr Yin Zhongcao of Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory research institute who headed research and trials work on rice from 2008, his team worked on the Temasek Rice that was inter-bred from over six varieties (including Southeast Asian jasmine rice) of rice to resist environmental conditions like floods and droughts and bacterial/fungal diseases (Yong, 2016).
Temasek Rice is a premium aromatic rice variety rich in dietary fibre (100% natural), with strong grain quality, soft texture, optimal taste, possesses high-yield quality, and cross-pollinated through the 'marker assisted breeding' where scientists select value-added rice genetic traits such as shorter and strong stalks to resist winds even “hibernate” during floods when they get underwater (Yong, 2016). Temasek Rice also has the both of both worlds with the qualities of nutrient-packed brown rice and the tenderness and fragrance of white rice and it can be prepared without the need for pre-soaking (Yong, 2016).
The Temasek Rice is a semi-dwarf variety that can withstand dry conditions, live for 14 days without hydration, possess anti-disease qualities and high productivity and Lim Hock Chuan, the Chief Executive of Temasek Foundation Liveability, describes the taste as intermediate between white and brown rice (unlike Thai fragrant rice) (Zheng, 2022). The consumers and the producers have worked with each other to exchange information on storing and cooking the rice, e.g. keeping it in cool, non-humid location inside an air-tight container (away from direct sunlight and chemicals) before cooking it with recipes like mixing it with brown rice and white rice to prepare sweet potato congee, fry with seafood, cook in claypots (sabofan), pair off with Japanese grilled unagi eel and pressed into salmon/cheese (Yong, 2016).
THE 2010S: FORGING AN EXTERNAL WING.
In the 2010s, Temasek Rice began to take on an external regional orientation. Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory was keen to utilize contemporary cultivation pedagogies to collaborate with regional researchers to upgrade their rice variety and condition them for cultivation in the Southeast Asian region, given that it is a ubiquitous Asian crop and rather de-emphasized until food crises (Yong, 2016).
Temasek Rice was created with Singaporean and Southeast region in mind, putting the island-nation in the position of assisting other countries in the field of agriculture even as a non-farming economy and make a positive change to the rural communities in the region as well as work towards food security for ASEAN (Yong, 2016). Temasek Life Sciences laboratory and Netatech may not be the only Singaporean entities trying to cultivate rice in Southeast Asia.
Besides large corporations, there are Singaporean private initiatives as well. Singaporeans like David Chen are also alleviating poverty by co-establishing Golden Sunland (Singapore’s first rice production firm in Myanmar) in 2016 and collaborate with local farmers to grow quality rice (a staple food in Myanmar/Southeast Asia) while promoting ethical “responsible farming” (e.g. allocating farmers above-average rice prices and whittling down the use of carbon-emitting fertilizers) (Ng, 2019).
There may also be potential for consumption outside Singapore given that it is retailed in Indonesia since 2016 and sold in Singaporean super-markets like Redmart and Amazon.sg (Zheng, 2022) and Japanese Meidi-Ya supermarket retailing from S$6.95 (US$5.17) for a 1 kg sack (Yong, 2016).
In the actual paddy fields, approximately 6 tons of Temasek Rice grains can be cultivated per hectare which is 4 times higher in volume than jasmine rice currently cultivated in Tasikmalaya Indonesia on a modest magnitude and in Aceh with collaborators to assist farmers whose farms were ruined by the 2004 tsunami (Yong, 2016).
Small-time peasants cannot afford hybrid rice seeds every season for planting and these farmers are also unaware of farming trends or they may have unsustainable practices, all of which contributed to yields and, most importantly, they are facing climate change and its increasing sea levels, powerful storms which are now considered the gravest threats to food security (Ng, 2019).
Singaporeans are also contributing to rejuvenating livelihoods that are destroyed by natural disasters. The 2008 Cyclone Nargis devastated southern Myanmar Ayeyarwady region with sea water washing over above 50% of its paddy land (that supplied 30% of the population’s rice), rendering them unusable for rice cultivation henceforth (Ng, 2019). After Cyclone Nargis eliminated 80,000 Myanmarese, the cyclone’s ground zero Labutta township’s farmers are now utilizing Chen's high-yield seeds since 2016 and the costs of providing these seeds will be recovered at harvest time (Ng, 2019).
While the challenge for some Southeast Asian countries is low yield and natural disasters, other countries face the challenge of producing low quality rice. For example, Myanmar’s rice output remains majority broken rice (fragmented and not whole grains) that can only be used mainly for food manufacturing (Ng, 2019).
Singaporean David Chen believes he can persuade Myanmarese farmers to augment their rice yields, given that Myanmar with its 7.2 million hectares of rice paddies (100 times bigger than Singapore) is under-producing its potential, so Chen is determined to create awareness amongst farmers to utilize less fertilizers to lessen GHG emissions while increasing yields (Ng, 2019).
Singaporean graduate in molecular biology David Chen is trying to modify how rice is planted in Myanmar using hybrid seed technology and improving the economic status of peasants in that country and perhaps contribute to regaining Myanmar’s former status as the globe’s number one ranking rice exporter (Ng, 2019).
Chen had to convince Myanmarese farmers that he was knowledgeable in rice cultivation (despite his young age and coming from Singapore) to gain their cooperation to increase output productivity; and he started by earning trust from ground-up, having open communications, being humble and, all along, driven only by the esoteric goals of humility in improving the livelihoods of rice producers who will provide for the future generations of Southeast Asians (including his child) (Ng, 2019).
Chen needed to work with a farmer who can be a demonstrative example to show off the success of using his programme to lure other farmers to try out his seeds and place trust in his company, and in this aspect, farmer Khin Htay Win (whose field was previously destroyed by a cyclone) became a testbed for Chen’s hybrid seed technology (Ng, 2019).
After one year of using Chen’s seeds, Khin’s rice crops grew well and Khin sang praises of Chen: “We can tell he’s empathetic, especially towards us agricultural people…We also respect him. Everything worked out well … Both our yield and income have significantly increased. Crops were planted and exported, and we have surplus income for investments” (Ng, 2019). With such endorsement, subsequently, 39 farmers spread across 200 acres of farmland are planted Chen’s hybrid seeds, enhancing their revenue 30% which Chen characterized as “at least a 30 per cent betterment of their livelihood” (Ng, 2019).
THE 2020S: SUCCESS AT THE HOUSING ESTATES.
Forgoing the traditional limitations of cultivating rice paddy fields and the acute need for water, land space and ideal climatic conditions, Singapore has achieved a breakthrough in growing rice on wall-mounted urban vertical farm at Block 146 Tampines Avenue 5 (Zheng, 2022). It comes as a tremendous sense of pride (and with some surprise) to Singaporeans that they are now able to grow and consume fully made-in-Singapore rice without the need for paddy fields (Zheng, 2022). This is history in the making as it is the pioneering moment for contemporary rice cultivation in an urbanized public housing area in Singapore.
Perhaps, even more surprisingly, the rice is grown at a housing estate with government flats and apartment blocks. More than 80% of Singaporeans live in well-run world-class public housing and thus, it comes as a sense of pride that rice is now cultivable in their own backyard. The rice grown in this way is now labelled as Temasek Rice, forged in the Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory greenhouse and tested/trialed the rice experimentally in the vertical farming structure in Lim Chu Kang before full implementation in the Tampines vertical farm in October 2021 which can produce 165 kg of vegetables monthly to feed 100 4-members families (Zheng, 2022).
On the morning of 12 Feb 2022, Tampines GRC (Group Representation Constituency) Members of Parliament (MPs) participated in the rice harvesting ceremony at the site in threshing the rice grains to remove them from the stalks and to symbolically signify a bountiful Year of the Water Tiger during the Lunar New Year (LNY) period (Zheng, 2022).
Currently, Temasek Rice at Block 146 is still at research and development (R & D) stage but the harvests are given to the residents who accumulated credit points after returning food wastes to the black soldier fly facility at Tampines Park and Masagos Zulkifli (Minister for Social and Family Development) announced that Block 146’s achievement has stimulated interest from other Singaporean neighbourhoods/residents (Zheng, 2022).
The six-storey vertical farm at Block 146 is operated by Singaporean company Netatech that focuses on precise drip irrigation, micro-drip technology and rainwater harvesting to cut down on the inputs (like water) for cultivating crops (in addition to rice which his cultivated at the highest stratum, the other strata are growing naibai and Hong Kong kai lan vegetables) (Zheng, 2022). Daniel Wong, the director of technology at Netatech explained that cultivating 1,000 grams of rice in a paddy needs 2,500 litres of water while the precision drip irrigation only requires 750 litres of water to produce 1,000 grams of rice output and it takes approximately 4 months to cultivate each lot of Temasek Rice while the naibai and kailans require 2-4 weeks for harvest (Zheng, 2022).
2030S AND BEYOND: THE FUTURE.
Able to meet the national initiatives of reaching the "30-by-30" objective of meeting 30% of Singaporeans’ nutritional requirements through local food supply by 2030, there are now calls to clone the vertical farming facilities to other public housing areas (subject to the town council’s assurance of adequate land area to accommodate these infrastructures without inconveniences to residents’ privacy or landscape access) (Zheng, 2022).
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS/SUGGESTIONS/IMPLICATIONS/SUMMARY
In 2020, Singapore exported US$79.6 million of rice (ranked 22nd globally, 226th most exported product in Singapore), particularly to the end destinations of Indonesia (US$36.1 million), Mozambique (US$18.9 million), Benin (US$13.7 million), Malaysia (US$5.65 million) and the Philippines (US$1.03 million) (OEC, 2020). The fastest growing export markets for Singapore’s rice exports between 2019 and 2020 were Mozambique (US$12.3 million with growth of 188%), Benin (US$11.1 million, with growth of 440%), and Indonesia (US$8.16 million with growth of 29.2%) while the fastest declining market for Singapore rice exports (2019-2020) were Ghana (-US$3.44 million, negative growth of -98.3%), Samoa (-US$1.29 million, negative growth of -100%) and Poland (-US$1.18 million, negative growth of -98.9%) (OEC, 2020). After the top three, the rest went to Malaysia (7.1% of Singapore’s rice exports), the Philippines (1.29%), Nigeria (1.12%), Mauritania (1%), Republic of the Congo (0.65%), Brunei (0.3%) (OEC, 2020). The export figures take into account the transhipment hub status of the city state.
In 2020, Singapore imported US$289 million worth of rice (ranked 31st globally, 128th most imported product in Singapore), particularly from: Thailand (US$123.0 million), India (US$59.8 million), Vietnam (US$57.1 million), China (US$11.5 million) and Cambodia (US$8.57 million) (OEC, 2020). The sources of the fastest growing volumes of imported rice for Singapore from 2019 to 2020 came from Thailand (US$25.2 million), China (US$11.1 million), and India (US$7.35 million) (OEC, 2020). The rest of Singapore’s import sources are Vietnam (19.8% of overall imports), Cambodia (2.97%), Japan (2.59%), Myanmar (2.19%), Taiwan (2.11%), Pakistan (0.81%) (OEC, 2020).
From the industrial trends, it may be possible for the authorities to retain the policies that have promoted the success of Singapore’s rice export/import/cultivation sectors. These may include retaining the policies of: continuing to fund promising research on disease-resistant/environmentally-resilient dry rice like Temasek Rice, export knowhow to other ASEAN regions in the spirit of ASEAN cooperation, continue to promote Temasek Rice after initial successes in Indonesia (e.g. Aceh), sustain rice cultivation in the public housing estates, facilitate the constructions of more vertical rice farms, and assuage residents of the non-disruptive nature of high-tech rice farming.
Based on the successes of Temasek Rice, Singapore’s authorities can augment the following possible areas of: providing its rice technologies to ASEAN countries affected by climate change (reinforcing the absence of beggar-thy-neighbour policy in ASEAN), continue the research and development of efficient dripping technologies for the rice crop, improve logistical connectivity for transhipment activities/rice export to areas with the highest potential growth (Mozambique/Benin/Indonesia, highlighting the importance of the African/ASEAN markets), work with more civil society advocates like David Chen to assist local rural communities in poverty alleviation/food supply issues through high-tech rice farming and provide more opportunities for inspired local enthusiasts to engage in rice-growing activities while mitigating over-reliance on imports.
REFERENCES
Chia, Joshua Yeong Jia. Grow More Food Campaign. Singapore Government Agency National Library Board Singapore Infopedia, 31 December 2022. Retrieved from https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1223_2008-12-05.html
Kingwell-Banham, Eleanor. Dry, rainfed or irrigated? Reevaluating the role and development of rice agriculture in Iron Age-Early Historic South India using archaeobotanical approaches. Springer Nature, 15 February 2019. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12520-019-00795-7
Ng, Desmond. How a Singaporean is changing the fates of rice farmers in Myanmar. CNA Insider, 13 July 2019. Retrieved from https://www.channelnewsasia.com/cnainsider/singaporean-david-chen-changi...
O'Connor, Richard A. Rice in the Making of Southeast Asia. Association of Asian Studies (AAS) Education About Asia Vol. 9 No. 3, Winter 2004. Retrieved from https://www.asianstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/rice-in-the-making-of-so...
Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC, MIT Collective Learning Group). Rice in Singapore. Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC, MIT Collective Learning Group), 31 December 2020. Retrieved from https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-product/rice/reporter/sgp#:~:text...(%248.57M).
Tyers, R. K. (Ray K.). Old Malay lady in a padi field: two people. Economy Heritage and Culture, 1919- 1950, NLB/Photographs by R.K. Tyers. Staff Straits Steamship Co., Ltd. Singapore, 1950. Retrieived from https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/pictures/Details/d5706b6a-6901-4fd5-966e-d...
Tyers, R. K. (Ray K.). Planting the shoots: general view/Life in a Paddy field. Economy Heritage and Culture , 1919- 1950, NLB/Photographs by R.K. Tyers. Staff Straits Steamship Co., Ltd. Singapore, 1950. Retrieved from https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/pictures/Details/ed127674-adff-4961-80b2-c...
Yong, Debbie. First Ever Made-in-Singapore Rice Hits The Shelves, Michelin Guide, 2 October 2016. Retrieved from https://guide.michelin.com/sg/en/article/dining-in/first-ever-made-in-si...
Zheng, Zhangxin. Tampines Blk 146 vertical farm successfully grows & harvests made-in-S'pore rice. Mothership, 12 Feb 2022. Retrieved from https://mothership.sg/2022/02/tampines-vertical-farm-rice/
The History of Singapore’s Rice Cultivation
ABSTRACT
Dry rice was first introduced to Singapore out of necessity by the wartime Japanese administration in Singapore. In the 3-year Food Sufficiency program, the ‘Grow More Food Campaign’ motivated Singaporeans to cultivate common crops like dry rice using all available spaces including residential areas, roadsides, and the majestic Padang square (Chia, 2022). Despite the Campaign, Malaya (including Singapore) failed to reach self-sufficiency because many residents were not sufficiently trained for agricultural activities (Chia, 2022). After Singapore became fully independent as a nation-state in 1965, Singapore opted for industrialization programs, overshadowing the agricultural industry and dry rice cultivation for the rest of the 20th century, before a series of crises (the food shortfall before the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis/AFC or the initial stages of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic) revived high tech rice cultivation in Singapore. Spearheaded by senior principal investigator Dr Yin Zhongcao of Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory research institute who headed research and trials work on rice from 2008, his team worked on the Temasek Rice that was inter-bred from over six varieties (including Southeast Asian jasmine rice) of rice to resist environmental conditions like floods and droughts and bacterial/fungal diseases (Yong, 2016). Singapore achieved a breakthrough in growing rice on wall-mounted urban vertical farm at Block 146 Tampines Avenue 5 (Zheng, 2022). The rice is grown at a housing estate with government flats and apartment blocks where more than 80% of Singaporeans live in well-run world-class public housing. Able to meet the national initiatives of reaching the "30-by-30" objective of meeting 30% of Singaporeans’ nutritional requirements through local food supply by 2030, there are now calls to clone the vertical farming facilities to other public housing areas (Zheng, 2022).
Keywords: rice, paddy, Singapore, Myanmar, Temasek Rice, dry rice
THE 1940S: UNDER JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION.
Singapore has flat terrains and no mountains, its tallest hilly area is Bukit Timah Hill standing at only 164 m. This makes Singapore ideal for dry rice cultivation. Dry rice was first introduced to Singapore out of necessity by the wartime Japanese administration in Singapore. The ‘Grow More Food Campaign’ that began during the Japanese wartime administration was meant to stifle inflation and work around Allied embargo, thus calls went out for food self-sufficiency through indigenous cultivation by urbanites, civil servants, students and prisoners-of-war (POWs) (Chia, 2022).
The Campaign was managed by the Agricultural and Forestry Section of the Special Municipality and the Overseas Chinese Association with the mass media printing farming tips by the Agricultural Departments for all to read, and radio propagation of farming messages too (Chia, 2022). In the 3-year Food Sufficiency program, the ‘Grow More Food Campaign’ motivated Singaporeans to cultivate common crops like dry rice using all available spaces including residential areas, roadsides, and the majestic Padang square (Chia, 2022).
Starting from 1944, the Japanese wartime authorities began to make such planting activities mandatory at the threat of punitive measures for subversion, given the acute need to build up supplies or rice and other commodities (Chia, 2022). Despite the Campaign, Malaya (including Singapore) failed to reach self-sufficiency because many residents were not sufficiently trained for agricultural activities and others were pining for the British authorities to return to the island so they did not take up the farming call (Chia, 2022).
THE 1950S AND THE SECOND HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY: LAST ARCHIVAL PHOTOGRAPHIC GLIMPSES OF RICE CULTIVATION.
In the post-war period, there are at least two archival photos of Malay Singaporean women carrying out small-scale wet paddy rice cultivation in Singapore in the National Library Board (NLB) photo archives PictureSG. Both are dated back to 1950. One of them shows two Malay women planting the paddy shoots at the sawah (meaning ‘field’ in the Malay language) with many helpers to fasten up the pace of work in the album "Life in a Paddy field", part of a compiled album titled "Photographs by R.K. Tyers. Staff Straits Steamship Co., Ltd. Singapore" (Tyers, 1950). Another 1950s photo show an elderly Malay woman holding paddy shoots tending to a family-run paddy field with a co-worker and they were decked in customary Malay costume with skirts rolled up to the knees (Tyers, 1950).
After Singapore became self-governing as part of Malaya in 1959, achieved independence in 1963 as part of Malaysia and fully independent as a nation-state in 1965, Singapore opted for industrialization programs starting with import substitution and then export orientation, overshadowing the agricultural industry and dry rice cultivation for the rest of the 20th century, before a series of crises (the food shortfall before the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis/AFC or the initial stages of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic) revived high tech rice cultivation in Singapore.
THE 2000S: GENESIS OF HIGH TECH RESEARCH.
Spearheaded by senior principal investigator Dr Yin Zhongcao of Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory research institute who headed research and trials work on rice from 2008, his team worked on the Temasek Rice that was inter-bred from over six varieties (including Southeast Asian jasmine rice) of rice to resist environmental conditions like floods and droughts and bacterial/fungal diseases (Yong, 2016).
Temasek Rice is a premium aromatic rice variety rich in dietary fibre (100% natural), with strong grain quality, soft texture, optimal taste, possesses high-yield quality, and cross-pollinated through the 'marker assisted breeding' where scientists select value-added rice genetic traits such as shorter and strong stalks to resist winds even “hibernate” during floods when they get underwater (Yong, 2016). Temasek Rice also has the both of both worlds with the qualities of nutrient-packed brown rice and the tenderness and fragrance of white rice and it can be prepared without the need for pre-soaking (Yong, 2016).
The Temasek Rice is a semi-dwarf variety that can withstand dry conditions, live for 14 days without hydration, possess anti-disease qualities and high productivity and Lim Hock Chuan, the Chief Executive of Temasek Foundation Liveability, describes the taste as intermediate between white and brown rice (unlike Thai fragrant rice) (Zheng, 2022). The consumers and the producers have worked with each other to exchange information on storing and cooking the rice, e.g. keeping it in cool, non-humid location inside an air-tight container (away from direct sunlight and chemicals) before cooking it with recipes like mixing it with brown rice and white rice to prepare sweet potato congee, fry with seafood, cook in claypots (sabofan), pair off with Japanese grilled unagi eel and pressed into salmon/cheese (Yong, 2016).
THE 2010S: FORGING AN EXTERNAL WING.
In the 2010s, Temasek Rice began to take on an external regional orientation. Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory was keen to utilize contemporary cultivation pedagogies to collaborate with regional researchers to upgrade their rice variety and condition them for cultivation in the Southeast Asian region, given that it is a ubiquitous Asian crop and rather de-emphasized until food crises (Yong, 2016).
Temasek Rice was created with Singaporean and Southeast region in mind, putting the island-nation in the position of assisting other countries in the field of agriculture even as a non-farming economy and make a positive change to the rural communities in the region as well as work towards food security for ASEAN (Yong, 2016). Temasek Life Sciences laboratory and Netatech may not be the only Singaporean entities trying to cultivate rice in Southeast Asia.
Besides large corporations, there are Singaporean private initiatives as well. Singaporeans like David Chen are also alleviating poverty by co-establishing Golden Sunland (Singapore’s first rice production firm in Myanmar) in 2016 and collaborate with local farmers to grow quality rice (a staple food in Myanmar/Southeast Asia) while promoting ethical “responsible farming” (e.g. allocating farmers above-average rice prices and whittling down the use of carbon-emitting fertilizers) (Ng, 2019).
There may also be potential for consumption outside Singapore given that it is retailed in Indonesia since 2016 and sold in Singaporean super-markets like Redmart and Amazon.sg (Zheng, 2022) and Japanese Meidi-Ya supermarket retailing from S$6.95 (US$5.17) for a 1 kg sack (Yong, 2016).
In the actual paddy fields, approximately 6 tons of Temasek Rice grains can be cultivated per hectare which is 4 times higher in volume than jasmine rice currently cultivated in Tasikmalaya Indonesia on a modest magnitude and in Aceh with collaborators to assist farmers whose farms were ruined by the 2004 tsunami (Yong, 2016).
Small-time peasants cannot afford hybrid rice seeds every season for planting and these farmers are also unaware of farming trends or they may have unsustainable practices, all of which contributed to yields and, most importantly, they are facing climate change and its increasing sea levels, powerful storms which are now considered the gravest threats to food security (Ng, 2019).
Singaporeans are also contributing to rejuvenating livelihoods that are destroyed by natural disasters. The 2008 Cyclone Nargis devastated southern Myanmar Ayeyarwady region with sea water washing over above 50% of its paddy land (that supplied 30% of the population’s rice), rendering them unusable for rice cultivation henceforth (Ng, 2019). After Cyclone Nargis eliminated 80,000 Myanmarese, the cyclone’s ground zero Labutta township’s farmers are now utilizing Chen's high-yield seeds since 2016 and the costs of providing these seeds will be recovered at harvest time (Ng, 2019).
While the challenge for some Southeast Asian countries is low yield and natural disasters, other countries face the challenge of producing low quality rice. For example, Myanmar’s rice output remains majority broken rice (fragmented and not whole grains) that can only be used mainly for food manufacturing (Ng, 2019).
Singaporean David Chen believes he can persuade Myanmarese farmers to augment their rice yields, given that Myanmar with its 7.2 million hectares of rice paddies (100 times bigger than Singapore) is under-producing its potential, so Chen is determined to create awareness amongst farmers to utilize less fertilizers to lessen GHG emissions while increasing yields (Ng, 2019).
Singaporean graduate in molecular biology David Chen is trying to modify how rice is planted in Myanmar using hybrid seed technology and improving the economic status of peasants in that country and perhaps contribute to regaining Myanmar’s former status as the globe’s number one ranking rice exporter (Ng, 2019).
Chen had to convince Myanmarese farmers that he was knowledgeable in rice cultivation (despite his young age and coming from Singapore) to gain their cooperation to increase output productivity; and he started by earning trust from ground-up, having open communications, being humble and, all along, driven only by the esoteric goals of humility in improving the livelihoods of rice producers who will provide for the future generations of Southeast Asians (including his child) (Ng, 2019).
Chen needed to work with a farmer who can be a demonstrative example to show off the success of using his programme to lure other farmers to try out his seeds and place trust in his company, and in this aspect, farmer Khin Htay Win (whose field was previously destroyed by a cyclone) became a testbed for Chen’s hybrid seed technology (Ng, 2019).
After one year of using Chen’s seeds, Khin’s rice crops grew well and Khin sang praises of Chen: “We can tell he’s empathetic, especially towards us agricultural people…We also respect him. Everything worked out well … Both our yield and income have significantly increased. Crops were planted and exported, and we have surplus income for investments” (Ng, 2019). With such endorsement, subsequently, 39 farmers spread across 200 acres of farmland are planted Chen’s hybrid seeds, enhancing their revenue 30% which Chen characterized as “at least a 30 per cent betterment of their livelihood” (Ng, 2019).
THE 2020S: SUCCESS AT THE HOUSING ESTATES.
Forgoing the traditional limitations of cultivating rice paddy fields and the acute need for water, land space and ideal climatic conditions, Singapore has achieved a breakthrough in growing rice on wall-mounted urban vertical farm at Block 146 Tampines Avenue 5 (Zheng, 2022). It comes as a tremendous sense of pride (and with some surprise) to Singaporeans that they are now able to grow and consume fully made-in-Singapore rice without the need for paddy fields (Zheng, 2022). This is history in the making as it is the pioneering moment for contemporary rice cultivation in an urbanized public housing area in Singapore.
Perhaps, even more surprisingly, the rice is grown at a housing estate with government flats and apartment blocks. More than 80% of Singaporeans live in well-run world-class public housing and thus, it comes as a sense of pride that rice is now cultivable in their own backyard. The rice grown in this way is now labelled as Temasek Rice, forged in the Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory greenhouse and tested/trialed the rice experimentally in the vertical farming structure in Lim Chu Kang before full implementation in the Tampines vertical farm in October 2021 which can produce 165 kg of vegetables monthly to feed 100 4-members families (Zheng, 2022).
On the morning of 12 Feb 2022, Tampines GRC (Group Representation Constituency) Members of Parliament (MPs) participated in the rice harvesting ceremony at the site in threshing the rice grains to remove them from the stalks and to symbolically signify a bountiful Year of the Water Tiger during the Lunar New Year (LNY) period (Zheng, 2022).
Currently, Temasek Rice at Block 146 is still at research and development (R & D) stage but the harvests are given to the residents who accumulated credit points after returning food wastes to the black soldier fly facility at Tampines Park and Masagos Zulkifli (Minister for Social and Family Development) announced that Block 146’s achievement has stimulated interest from other Singaporean neighbourhoods/residents (Zheng, 2022).
The six-storey vertical farm at Block 146 is operated by Singaporean company Netatech that focuses on precise drip irrigation, micro-drip technology and rainwater harvesting to cut down on the inputs (like water) for cultivating crops (in addition to rice which his cultivated at the highest stratum, the other strata are growing naibai and Hong Kong kai lan vegetables) (Zheng, 2022). Daniel Wong, the director of technology at Netatech explained that cultivating 1,000 grams of rice in a paddy needs 2,500 litres of water while the precision drip irrigation only requires 750 litres of water to produce 1,000 grams of rice output and it takes approximately 4 months to cultivate each lot of Temasek Rice while the naibai and kailans require 2-4 weeks for harvest (Zheng, 2022).
2030S AND BEYOND: THE FUTURE.
Able to meet the national initiatives of reaching the "30-by-30" objective of meeting 30% of Singaporeans’ nutritional requirements through local food supply by 2030, there are now calls to clone the vertical farming facilities to other public housing areas (subject to the town council’s assurance of adequate land area to accommodate these infrastructures without inconveniences to residents’ privacy or landscape access) (Zheng, 2022).
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS/SUGGESTIONS/IMPLICATIONS/SUMMARY
In 2020, Singapore exported US$79.6 million of rice (ranked 22nd globally, 226th most exported product in Singapore), particularly to the end destinations of Indonesia (US$36.1 million), Mozambique (US$18.9 million), Benin (US$13.7 million), Malaysia (US$5.65 million) and the Philippines (US$1.03 million) (OEC, 2020). The fastest growing export markets for Singapore’s rice exports between 2019 and 2020 were Mozambique (US$12.3 million with growth of 188%), Benin (US$11.1 million, with growth of 440%), and Indonesia (US$8.16 million with growth of 29.2%) while the fastest declining market for Singapore rice exports (2019-2020) were Ghana (-US$3.44 million, negative growth of -98.3%), Samoa (-US$1.29 million, negative growth of -100%) and Poland (-US$1.18 million, negative growth of -98.9%) (OEC, 2020). After the top three, the rest went to Malaysia (7.1% of Singapore’s rice exports), the Philippines (1.29%), Nigeria (1.12%), Mauritania (1%), Republic of the Congo (0.65%), Brunei (0.3%) (OEC, 2020). The export figures take into account the transhipment hub status of the city state.
In 2020, Singapore imported US$289 million worth of rice (ranked 31st globally, 128th most imported product in Singapore), particularly from: Thailand (US$123.0 million), India (US$59.8 million), Vietnam (US$57.1 million), China (US$11.5 million) and Cambodia (US$8.57 million) (OEC, 2020). The sources of the fastest growing volumes of imported rice for Singapore from 2019 to 2020 came from Thailand (US$25.2 million), China (US$11.1 million), and India (US$7.35 million) (OEC, 2020). The rest of Singapore’s import sources are Vietnam (19.8% of overall imports), Cambodia (2.97%), Japan (2.59%), Myanmar (2.19%), Taiwan (2.11%), Pakistan (0.81%) (OEC, 2020).
From the industrial trends, it may be possible for the authorities to retain the policies that have promoted the success of Singapore’s rice export/import/cultivation sectors. These may include retaining the policies of: continuing to fund promising research on disease-resistant/environmentally-resilient dry rice like Temasek Rice, export knowhow to other ASEAN regions in the spirit of ASEAN cooperation, continue to promote Temasek Rice after initial successes in Indonesia (e.g. Aceh), sustain rice cultivation in the public housing estates, facilitate the constructions of more vertical rice farms, and assuage residents of the non-disruptive nature of high-tech rice farming.
Based on the successes of Temasek Rice, Singapore’s authorities can augment the following possible areas of: providing its rice technologies to ASEAN countries affected by climate change (reinforcing the absence of beggar-thy-neighbour policy in ASEAN), continue the research and development of efficient dripping technologies for the rice crop, improve logistical connectivity for transhipment activities/rice export to areas with the highest potential growth (Mozambique/Benin/Indonesia, highlighting the importance of the African/ASEAN markets), work with more civil society advocates like David Chen to assist local rural communities in poverty alleviation/food supply issues through high-tech rice farming and provide more opportunities for inspired local enthusiasts to engage in rice-growing activities while mitigating over-reliance on imports.
REFERENCES
Chia, Joshua Yeong Jia. Grow More Food Campaign. Singapore Government Agency National Library Board Singapore Infopedia, 31 December 2022. Retrieved from https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1223_2008-12-05.html
Kingwell-Banham, Eleanor. Dry, rainfed or irrigated? Reevaluating the role and development of rice agriculture in Iron Age-Early Historic South India using archaeobotanical approaches. Springer Nature, 15 February 2019. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12520-019-00795-7
Ng, Desmond. How a Singaporean is changing the fates of rice farmers in Myanmar. CNA Insider, 13 July 2019. Retrieved from https://www.channelnewsasia.com/cnainsider/singaporean-david-chen-changi...
O'Connor, Richard A. Rice in the Making of Southeast Asia. Association of Asian Studies (AAS) Education About Asia Vol. 9 No. 3, Winter 2004. Retrieved from https://www.asianstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/rice-in-the-making-of-so...
Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC, MIT Collective Learning Group). Rice in Singapore. Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC, MIT Collective Learning Group), 31 December 2020. Retrieved from https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-product/rice/reporter/sgp#:~:text...(%248.57M).
Tyers, R. K. (Ray K.). Old Malay lady in a padi field: two people. Economy Heritage and Culture, 1919- 1950, NLB/Photographs by R.K. Tyers. Staff Straits Steamship Co., Ltd. Singapore, 1950. Retrieived from https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/pictures/Details/d5706b6a-6901-4fd5-966e-d...
Tyers, R. K. (Ray K.). Planting the shoots: general view/Life in a Paddy field. Economy Heritage and Culture , 1919- 1950, NLB/Photographs by R.K. Tyers. Staff Straits Steamship Co., Ltd. Singapore, 1950. Retrieved from https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/pictures/Details/ed127674-adff-4961-80b2-c...
Yong, Debbie. First Ever Made-in-Singapore Rice Hits The Shelves, Michelin Guide, 2 October 2016. Retrieved from https://guide.michelin.com/sg/en/article/dining-in/first-ever-made-in-si...
Zheng, Zhangxin. Tampines Blk 146 vertical farm successfully grows & harvests made-in-S'pore rice. Mothership, 12 Feb 2022. Retrieved from https://mothership.sg/2022/02/tampines-vertical-farm-rice/