Group Project Proposal

Introduction to alternative methods to efficient plant growth to Singa-

pore for incorporation in future to ensure Singapore’s self sustenance.

Number of times submitted : ONE

Prepared for: Project Work, 2010 Date Submitted : Monday, May 31, 2010
Name of Supervising Tutor : Ms Wendy Heng

Prepared by: U Bhalraam

FOR ST ONLY :
Maureen Ng APPROVED / PLEASE REVISE

G Reuben Gangesh

Gan Tze Ling

Ramakrishna S/O Jairambobb

Group-Number : CJC127

Catholic Junior College - Project Work 2010

Catholic Junior College
 Introduction 1
Singapore’s Water Supply 1
Four Taps of Singapore 4
Rationale 4
Aims and Objectives of the Project 5
Details 6
Feasibility 8
Manageability of Project 9
Review of Literature 9
Other Sources of Primary Sources 10
Logistics and Planning 11
Break Days 12
Related Information and Sources Relevant Websites and Literature 13

Catholic Junior College - Project Work 2010

Catholic Junior College
Introduction
According to the Oxford Dictionary, Alternatives is defined as The choice between two
mutually exclusive possibilities. A choice has to be made as a result of scarcity, of organi-
zations unable to support the fulfillment of the both alternatives.

In this case, alternatives for efficient methods for plant growth. Agriculture is the produc-
tion of food and goods through farming. Agriculture was the key development that led to
the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants (i.e.
crops) creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated
and stratified societies.

Agriculture encompasses a wide variety of specialties and techniques, including ways to

expand the lands suitable for plant raising, by digging water-channels and other forms of
irrigation. Cultivation of crops on arable land and the pastoral herding of livestock on
rangeland remain at the foundation of agriculture. In the past century there has been in-
creasing concern to identify and quantify various forms of agriculture. In the developed
world the range usually extends between sustainable agriculture (e.g. permaculture or or-
ganic agriculture) and intensive farming (e.g. industrial agriculture).

The irony is, when these stratified societies are formed, there is less reserved space for
agriculture to take place. Developed nations like America and Spain are those that are
more interested in Secondary and Tertiary Industries, which are the manufacturing sector
that creates a usable product and the sector that provides services of selling the manu-
factured goods respectively. However, due to their new focus, they are slowly doing away
with the Primary Industry, which involve the extraction of raw materials from land or from
sea and ironically, is indeed very essential for our survival.

Singapore once suffered scarcity of resources before. Water. Singapore has no natural
source of fresh water. Without water, Singapore could not have reached its status as a 1st
world economy. How Singapore achieved water security is through 4 main ‘taps’. Buying
water from Malaysia, NEWater, Desalination and Water catchment areas. We can learn
from our brilliant solution in the achievement of water security to solve the pressing prob-
lem of food security.

Singapore, (whose total land area is a mere 647.5 square kilometers 1 , almost negligible
being used for farming,) could incorporate their methods in being able to sustain itself in
the near future.

Singapore’s Water Supply

Singapore lacks freshwater lakes and rivers, this has led Singapore has adopted a “Four
Taps Strategy,”
Singapore's 4 national taps are:

• Imported water from Johor (40%)

• Desalinated water from the sea
• Water from local catchment (30%)
• NEWater (recycled water from local waste water) (15%)

1 Retrieved from : “http://www.singstat.gov.sg/”

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Singapore depends on Malaysia for nearly forty percent or more of its water supply.
Therefore, the importance of securing a freshwater source is paramount to Singapore and
the role of Malaysia as supplier frames relations between the two. The issue of supplying
water to Singapore has, at times, been brought to the forefront of the Malaysian and Sin-
gapore political arena. This can be traced to as early as 1965, the year when Singapore
was separated from Malaysia. Since then, Singapore has sometimes been the target of
resentment from segments of the Malaysian society, especially when relations between
these countries have become strained. One notable conflict would be the tussle between
both nations for the ownership of the island, Pedra Branca. This issue started with Malay-
sia claiming ownership of the island which according to a late document during British
rule claiming that the island was regarded as Singapore’s territory. Thus, the threat of cut-
ting water supplies would often accompany such disagreements and tensions. For a
comparison of Singapore to other ASEAN countries, see the chart below.

Prior to unification with Malay in 1961 and 1962, the then self-governing colony of Singa-
pore signed agreements with the territorial government in Johor, across the strait on the
peninsula, regarding the sale of water. These “Water Agreements” have largely been ob-
served since.

Presently, the major consumers of water in Singapore are the domestic and commerce/
industry sectors. See the chart on the next page for detailed consumption information.

Singapore Consumption Trends

(7)

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Approximately fifty percent of the total water supply is used for domestic purposes while
approximately forty percent of the total water supply is used for non-domestic purposes
such as commerce and industrial purposes. The per capita domestic consumption has
been falling gradually in recent years. Between 2002 and 2004, consumption per head fell
from 165 liters per day to 162 liters per day (7). Water shortages and price hikes are likely
to have greater impacts on the economy and the well being of Singapore’s population,
thus having both economic and political implications on the state machinery.

Presently, around 680,000 m3 (or 149.58 million gallons) of Singapore’s water consump-
tion is sourced from catchment areas around the city state. This represents about 60% of
the country’s daily needs. (9) As of 2005, there are fourteen raw water reservoirs in Singa-
pore (see map).

Singapore's Reservoirs

(10)

At present, about half of Singapore’s total land area is used for catchment purpose,
meaning that a total of 181 million m3 of rain is collected per year. Future plans to expand
rainwater harvesting to two third of the island’s area will increase this capacity to 238 mil-
lion m3/year. (11)

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Four Taps of Singapore
1) Local catchment areas
Strength: There are frequent rainfalls in Singapore, so it is hard for them to dry out.
Weakness: The amount of water collected by local catchment areas is not enough to
sustain the whole of Singapore
Weakness: If a drought occurs, the local catchment areas would dry out.
2) Johor water (imported water from Malaysia)
• Strength: It is cheaper than desalination and NEWater.
• Weakness: Bad relationships could affect the future water supply.
• Weakness: It is unreliable as the water agreements expire in 2011 and 2061.
3) Desalinated water
• Strength: Singapore is surrounded by water.
• Weakness: It is not cheap and incurs high cost.
• Weakness: There is only one plant. Hence. It is not a very secured measure as it being
the sole supplier, if it were to malfunction, the consequences could be dire. We
might not have a self-sustained water supply any more and would have to depend
very highly on imported water
4) NEWater
• Strength: Since humans produce waste everyday there would be a constant supply of
NEWater.
• Strength: There are enough NEWater plants to provide Singapore with NEWater.
Weakness: It is not cheap and incurs high cost.

NEWater was also a new method developed by Singapore in order to achieve water secu-
rity. The implementation of NEWater also involved the process of educating the public.
We can learn from this and can be used as a lesson learn towards our project.

Rationale
Singapore has adopted the above 4 strategies to diversify its water sources to ensure wa-
ter security should one of these strategies fail. Singapore is also trying to reduce its reli-
ance on Malaysia for her supply of water and has indicated that it will not pursue a re-
newal of water agreement with Malaysia that expires in 2011. This will help ensure that
Singapore is self-sustainable and will be less dependent on others for its supply of water.

Implications To New Idea

The above mentioned alternative was that of solving Singapore’s limited water supply via
the implementation of NEWater. Similarly, Singapore, being a nation lacking severely in
natural resources, also faces an uphill battle to sustain another of it’s important resources,
food. Food and water are basic necessities which all Singaporeans should have. How-
ever, Singapore is overly reliant to imports of food from fellow Asean countries like Thai-
land for rice. Thus, similar to how Singapore enforced technology to curb the issue on the
shortage of water, our proposed project is a suggestion of Singapore can utilize technol-
ogy to resolve the issue of having a self-sustainable food supply.

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Aims and Objectives of the Project

The Project is to ask Singapore to open up to new ideas of high tech farming. One of
which is Vertical Farming. As it would be really unfeasible to build the proposed idea of a
vertical farm and being able to sell crops to general public, Main idea would be to build a
skyscraper that is able to accommodate visitors and possesses high tech agricultural
methods to produce the amount of food needed to feed these visitors. It functions as a
farm, a recreational facility as well as an educational site. It will have an auditorium and an
information hall to provide visitors information of the idea presented in the project. It may
also contain a film theatre or other recreational facilities. Visitors will be a have a hands on
experience with modern farming methods. Adding all of this, there will be a section of the
information hall allocated to informing visitors on traditional farming methods, to show a
progression of agriculture from the past to now. There will also be a restaurant that serves
locally produced food.

Our objectives from this project is that Singapore would see the efficiency of vertical
farming and cease all horticultural methods and replaced with vertical farms after study-
ing the output in the non-commercial building proposed to be built, also showing Singa-
pore that it can attract many tourists as well.

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Details

Skyfarming
A Columbia professor believes that converting skyscrapers into crop
farms could help reduce global warming and make New York cleaner. It’s a
vision straight out of Futurama—but here’s how it might work.

• By Lisa Chamberlain
• Published Apr 2, 2007

(Photo: Architectural Designs by Rolf Mohr, Modeling and Rendering by Machine Films; Interiors by James Nelms Digital Artist
@ Storyboards Online)

 
Urban farming has always been a slightly quixotic endeavor. From the small animal farm
that was perched on the roof of the Upper West Side’s Ansonia apartment building in the
early 1900s (fresh eggs delivered by bellhop!) to community gardens threatened by real-
estate development, the dream of preserving a little of the country in the city is a utopian
one. But nobody has ever dreamed as big as Dr. Dickson Despommier, a professor of en-
vironmental sciences and microbiology at Columbia University, who believes that “vertical
farm” skyscrapers could help fight global warming.
 
 
 
Imagine a cluster of 30-story towers on Governors Island or in Hudson Yards producing
fruit, vegetables, and grains while also generating clean energy and purifying wastewater.
Roughly 150 such buildings, Despommier estimates, could feed the entire city of
Catholic Junior College - Project work 6
New York for a year. Using current green building systems, a vertical farm could be self-
sustaining and even produce a net output of clean water and energy.
 
 
 
Despommier began developing the vertical-farming concept six years ago (his research
can be found at verticalfarm .com), and he has been contacted by scientists and venture
capitalists from the Netherlands to Dubai who are interested in establishing a Center for
Urban Sustainable Agriculture, either independently or within Columbia. He estimates it
could take a working group of agricultural economists, architects, engineers, agrono-
mists, and urban planners five to ten years to figure out how to marry high-tech agricul-
tural practices with the latest sustainable building technology.
 
 
 
What does this have to do with climate change? The professor believes that only by al-
lowing significant portions of the Earth’s farmland to return to forest do we have a real
chance of stabilizing climate and weather patterns. Merely reducing energy consump-
tion—the centerpiece of the proposal Al Gore recently presented to Congress—will at
best slow global warming. Allowing forests to regrow where crops are now cultivated, he
believes, would reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as least as much as more-
efficient energy consumption.
 
 
There is another reason to develop indoor farming: exploding population growth. By
2050, demographers estimate there will be an additional 3 billion people (a global total of
9.2 billion). If current farming practices are maintained, extra landmass as large as Brazil
would have to be cultivated to feed them. Yet nearly all the land that can produce food is
already being farmed—even without accounting for the possibility of losing more to rising
sea levels and climate change (which could turn arable land into dust bowls).
 
 
 
Depending on the crops being grown, a single vertical farm could allow thousands of
farmland acres to be permanently reforested. For the moment, these calculations remain
highly speculative, but a real-life example offers a clue: After a strawberry farm in Florida
was wiped out by Hurricane Andrew, the owners built a hydroponic farm. By growing
strawberries indoors and stacking layers on top of each other, they now produce on one
acre of land what used to require 30 acres.
 
 
 
Why build vertical farms in cities? Growing crops in a controlled environment has bene-
fits: no animals to transfer disease through untreated waste; no massive crop failures as a
result of weather-related disasters; less likelihood of genetically modified “rogue” strains
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entering the “natural” plant world. All food could be grown organically, without herbicides,
pesticides, or fertilizers, eliminating agricultural runoff. And 80 percent of the world’s
population will be living in urban areas by 2050. Cities already have the density and in-
frastructure needed to support vertical farms, and super-green skyscrapers could
supply not just food but energy, creating a truly self-sustaining environment.
 
 
 
Like the Biosphere 2 project in Arizona, a real vertical farm will probably require a utopian
philanthropist with deep pockets. In the eighties, Edward Bass spent $200 million of his
own money to construct the Biosphere. A smaller and less complex vertical farm would
probably cost that much to build today and could be funded by someone from a country
where arable land is already in short supply, such as Japan, Iceland, or more likely Dubai.
Despommier is convinced the first vertical farm will exist within fifteen years—and the
irony is, oil money could very well build it.
 
Article from( New York Magazine)http://nymag.com/news/features/30020/

Feasibility
Government encourages high tech farms and as such our project is feasible, as the govern-
ment will want to fund our project and make it become a reality. Our government also sup-
ports Entrepreneurship and Technopreneurship with reference to “Social Studies for O level”
This “avant-garde” approach to farming has many benefits. These include:
• The ruling out of the possibility of mass crop wastage as crops are in a controlled envi-
ronment
• The ruling out of any pests / other hindrances due to the controlled environment
• Organic farming for all farms due to a more manageable space.
 
The numerable amount of jobs created by both the construction as well as the men/women
needed to run the skyscraper will undoubtedly entice the government and various farming
industries to support our project due to its positive economic impact given Singapore is re-
covering from the recent economic crisis.
The public at large will also support their idea as, in the event of a crisis, it is in fact they
themselves that will be affected. Our project serves as an effective "safety net" to ensure that
the people in Singapore will not be too drastically affected should a crisis arise.
Public awareness needs to be created.
This can be done by collaborating with schools and with the MOE so that schools can have
field trips to the skyscraper and the exhibition halls.
Another solution is to have a partnership with the Singapore tourism board or the MCYS to
promote greater interest among tourists, or families.

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Hopefully, we will be able to get the endorsement of the vegetable farmer's association as
well to increase the rate of success of our project.

Manageability of Project
• Manpower needed (Chefs, farmers, waitresses, service-providers)
          Mainly labour needed to build the structure ( construction workers )
People skilled in the field of Hi-Tech farming and able to manage the farm
Tour Guides to educate the visitors and students on processes and technology used     
                
• Land for the skyscraper                                                                         
Manageable as land required is not a lot as the building is high rise, a lot more land-
efficient as compared to traditional farming. Moreover, the profit gained from this sky-
scraper, whose profits are enhanced even more by nature of the fact that with many
storeys production yield is higher, would greatly outweigh the cost of land 

• Technology for farming

Manageable as Singapore's research and development sector is strong and currently
being developed further. (A* STAR and other R&D facilities) We definitely have the intel-
lectual resources required to operate or even come up with the required technology as
we place strong focus on Math and Science, we also can use foreign talent. 
The production of these technologies, however, may not be entirely able to be carried
out locally depending on the scale of production. Factories and industrial estates can
be built locally if possible, if not parts can be obtained from overseas but obtained lo-
cally.

Review of Literature
We need information like the cost of building the facility (contractor/research), feasibility and
needs of the community.

As well as public opinions about necessity of project (Surveys about the people’s opinion re-
garding the construction of the vertical farm and its benefits.) and sponsorship of project
from various corporations (projected to be Singapore Science Center, National Institute of
Education and Singapore Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority) and perhaps even the gov-
ernment.

Such information is necessary so that a proper project can be carried out that addresses
both the needs of efficient land use as well as increasing food sustainability in Singapore.

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 Also, permission to carry out the project will be obtained from relevant authorities such as
the Land and Transport Authority.

Also information gathered from contractors regarding the cost of construction materials will
help to evaluate the overall cost of building the vertical farm.

Secondary Sources like Newspaper clippings about the technology regarding efficient farm-
ing techniques that can be used inside the vertical farm as they will provide some insight and
information into current technologies however further research needs to be done so as to
make sure these methods are actually feasible can be used.

Websites that can provide information about other instances of vertical farming in other coun-
tries.

Architects that have built other vertical farms in other countries can lend their expertise in
creating the most efficient vertical farm to maximise output.

Good farming books that show the various outputs of cash crops such as rice and vegeta-
bles.

Websites may have unsubstantiated claims about information it provides hence this type of
source requires multiple cross referencing so as to verify its authenticity; but even websites
used in cross referencing may not be of a credible calibre hence it is best to refer back to
reference books found in libraries.

Architects will have various viewpoints on how the building will be built hence it although this
will create a lot of ideas, compromises needs to be taken so that the best vertical farm in-
corporating the best ideas can be constructed.

Surveys conducted to the teenage/young adult age group would be of greater importance as
they will eventually grow up being the next leaders of society hence their opinions regarding
this matter will show their viewpoint on this subject.

However since the population of Singapore is not only made up of youths, surveying the
general adult public is also important as most adults have gone through the recent recession
and are more wiser in choices. They make hence this type of wise answers are filled with
good rational and reasoning making them a source of useful viewpoints.

Likewise students and the elderly need to be surveyed too so as to get a holistic report on
the needs of the Singaporean population as a whole and then deciding actions to take from
there.

Other Sources of Primary Sources

Surveys. We need surveys because it gives us insight of what people think about relations to
the project at hand. It gives us an idea about the general public’s support for our project and
hence determine its success. Surveys is a good way of collecting data as it is efficient and
Catholic Junior College - Project work 10
manageable to store and reproduce. Our population is now close to 4839400 people as of
2008. Singapore is suffering from aging population and hence there will be more of the aged.
Our scope of survey is between the middle aged as well as youths as youth’s views are
important as they are going to live our future, middle aged ‘s views are important because
they have much experience in life. Our population is somewhat co-operative and are open to
the idea of surveys.

We decided to implement both a written survey as well as an online one. Having MCQ
sprinkled with Open Ended ones.

Strengths : We are aware about what people think about our project and how much they
support us.

We have an idea about what kind of crops are demanded by people

Limitations : People might be uncooperative and not take the survey seriously resulting in
anomalous results.

SAMPLE QUESTIONS TO ASK:

1) As a member of the public, would you visit our facility if it is built?

2) Does the idea of a Vertical Farming appeal to you as method of solving our food
crisis?

3) Will the proposed idea be a pulling factor in convincing the Singapore government to
implement this method of farming?

4) Are there any notable improvements that can be made towards the improving of our
proposed building? ( in terms of infrastructure and strorage capacity)

5) In the future, will this method of farming be implemented more widely in Singapore?

6) Would you support the building of such a facility in the future?

Logistics and Planning

Duration
Tasks Start Date End Date
(days)
Group Project Proposal 7/5/2010 14 21/5/2010
Preparation and Completion of Survey forms and 21/5/2010 40 30/6/2010
Interviews

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Written Report 21/5/2010 108 10/9/2010
Evaluation of Materials 21/5/2010 69 30/7/2010
Insights and Reflections 30/6/2010 30 30/7/2010
Oral Presentation 26/9/2010 38 1/11/2010
Group Project File 26/9/2010 38 1/11/2010

Time management for individual work will be done individually and should and would not
affect the progress of the group's work.

Break Days
Mid Year Examinations
Mother Tongue Oral Examinations
Promotional Examinations
Mother Tongue Written Examinations

Task Allocation
Most parts of the project will be done together as a team to encourage the contribution of ideas among team
members. This not only allows every member to participate in the project but also ensures that every mem-
ber in in the know about the project. Hence aiding in the answering of questions during the oral presentation. 

Maureen, Tze Ling ---> Survey Forms / Setting up online survey

Bhalraam, Reuben, Rama ---> Interviews

Catholic Junior College - Project work 12

Related Information and Sources
Relevant Websites and Literature
Hill, Ronald. Southeast Asia: People, Land and Economy. Allen and Unwin: Australia,
2002.

Huxley, T. “Defending the Lion City: The Armed Forces of Singapore.” Allen and Unwin:
Australia, 2000.

Ling, Ooi Giok. Sustainability and Cities: Conflict and Assessment. Institute of Policy
Studies: Singapore, 2005. pp 80.

Morgan, Bronwen. “Emerging Global Water Welfarism.” In Consuming Cultures, Global

Perspectives. Eds. Brewer, John and Trentmann, Frank. Berg: New York, 2006. pp. 279-
310.

Schwabach, Aaron. International Environmental Disputes: A Reference Handbook. ABC-

CLIO, Inc: Santa Barbara, CA, 2006. pp88.

UN Economic and Social Commision for Asia and the Pacific. “Good practices on strate-
gic planning and management of water resources in Asia and the Pacific.” Water Re-
sources Series, no 85. 2005. pp 89-97, 243-256.

UN World Water Development Report 2. “Water: A Shared Responsibility.” 2006.

Vincent, Jeffrey R. and Rozali, Mohammed Ali. Environment and Development in a

Resource-Rich Economy: Malaysia under the new economic policy. Harvard University
Press: Cambridge, MA, 1997. pp 233-267.

Zerner, Charles. Culture and a Question of Rights: Forests, Coasts, and Seas in Southeast
Asia. Duke University Press: Durham, 2003.

Sources

1 World Resources 2005: The Wealth of the Poor – Managing Ecosystems to Fight
Poverty. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute in Collaboration with United Nations
Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme, and World Bank,
2005; ASEAN Statistics <http://www.aseansec.org/13100.htm>; ASEAN Statistical
Yearbook 2001 <http://www.aseansec.org/macroeconomic/yearbook.htm>. Cited in Lee,
Poh Onn. "Water Management Issues in Singapore." IIAS, 2005. Available online at http://
www.khmerstudies.org/events/Water/Lee%20Nov%202005.pdf.
2 Barbara Leitch Lepoer, ed. Singapore: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the
Library of Congress, 1989. Available online at http://countrystudies.us/singapore/4.htm
3 Barbara Leitch Lepoer, ed. Singapore: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the
Library of Congress, 1989. Available online at http://countrystudies.us/singapore/5.htm
4 Barbara Leitch Lepoer, ed. Singapore: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the
Library of Congress, 1989. Available online at http://countrystudies.us/singapore/10.htm
5 "Singapore Country Information." Columbia International Affairs Online. Available online
at http://www.ciaonet.org/atlas/countries/sg_data_loc.html
6 From Third World to First: The Singapore Story 1965-2000 (Singapore: The Straits
Catholic Junior College - Project work 13
Times Press and Times Media Pte Ltd, 2000), p. 276. Cited in Segal, Diane. "Singapore's
Water Trade with Malaysia and Alternatives." Harvard, 2004. Available online at http://
tbw.geo.orst.edu/publications/related_research/Segal-Singapore-Malaysia%2004.pdf.
7 Singapore Public Utilities Board (PUB). "2006 Annual Report and Vital Environmental
Statistics." Available online at http://www.pub.gov.sg/home/Download_KES2006.aspx -
http://www.pub.gov.sg/downloads/pdf/kes2006.pdf.
8 Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Press statement by Prime Minister Goh Chok
Tong. 2003. Available online at http://internet-stg1.mfa.gov.sg/internet/press/water/
SpeechPM.htm.
9 Singapore Public Utilities Board (PUB). "2006 Annual Report and Vital Environmental
Statistics." Available online at http://www.pub.gov.sg/home/Download_KES2006.aspx -
http://www.pub.gov.sg/downloads/pdf/kes2006.pdf.
10 Map from Public Utilities Board cited in http://homepage.mac.com/voyager/NoPlace/
ctlb.html
11 Singapore Public Utilities Board (PUB). "2006 Annual Report and Vital Environmental
Statistics." Available online at http://www.pub.gov.sg/home/Download_KES2006.aspx -
http://www.pub.gov.sg/downloads/pdf/kes2006.pdf.
12 BBC News, 6 August 2002; The Star Online, 21 October 2002; The Straits Times, 8
September 2002b, 22 October 2002
13 Table from Segal, Diane. "Singapore's Water Trade with Malaysia and Alternatives."
Harvard, 2004. Available online at http://tbw.geo.orst.edu/publications/related_research/
Segal-Singapore-Malaysia%2004.pdf

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