Agriculture-food Technology

As a land scarce island city state, Singapore is heavily reliant on the world for its food needs. More than 90% of the country’s food supply is imported and this makes Singapore highly vulnerable to the global and regional imbalances in food supply and demand.

In a bid to reduce its heavy reliance on imports and buffer impacts from supply disruptions, Singapore aims to transform its agri-food industry into one that is highly productive, innovative, and sustainable, being able to produce 30% of the nation’s nutritional needs locally by 2030.

Our Approach

NUS plays a critical role in strengthening our national agri-food security through three key research areas

1. Developing and translating advanced urban agriculture and aquaculture solutions such as superior seeds and soil supplements (NUSoil) that enhance the survivability of plants and microbiomes to promote growth;
2. Developing AI and IoT tools for smart agri-food applications, leveraging automation, data analytics, machine learning and scalable IoT sensors to monitor plant physiology, derive precise inputs for optimal farming conditions, develop crop resilience, optimize crop yield and improve the efficiency and productivity of food processes;
3. Developing microbes and enzymes that can support the sustainable production of food ingredients and innovative technologies for food shelf-life enhancement through LED, nonthermal processing and probiotic fermentation

NUS has also established the NUS Agritech Centre to strengthen collaboration in the agriculture-food industry’s ecosystem and provide dedicated support for start-ups. This initiative supports the innovation and development of novel and sustainable agri-food technological solutions to improve health and meet the nutritional needs of our society.