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FOCUS 70: Planting Gardens In The Sky

Vertical farm, Sky Greens, has been lauded for its innovations to urban agriculture. Roshe Wong, Head of Business Development, Sky Urban VFS Pte Ltd, shares his perspective on where the agri-foodtech domain is headed.  

 

Could you explain what foodtech means for the future?  

We believe food tech is an integration of sciences to feed the world with food high in an environmentally-sustainable manner.  

 

How is Sky Greens rethinking agrifood? 

As a pioneer in vertical farming, we have been very focused in maximizing production and utilizing minimal resources, be it land, water and labour. We wanted to transform the lives of farmers and to a good degree, we have achieved this mission within the economics context. Now, we are looking into deeper into the benefits to food consumers and adding a purpose to improve the quality of produce while maximizing quantity. 

 

How is technology accelerating this production shift? 

Our tech is primarily mechanical engineering-based or design-based but it must be matched with horticultural and plant biology expertise. The engineering innovation can boost the quantity aspect in terms of production volume, operational costs and resource usage while breakthroughs in life science can enhance the quality of yield and stability in production. Sky Greens has always been known for its vertical farming finesse but we have just received our organic certification in Apr this year, achieving a milestone demonstrating that we can deliver both quantity and quality of fresh produce without the use of chemical materials that are harmful to both humans and our environment. 

 

In order to meet Singapore’s ‘30 by 30’ food production target, what kind of resources do you think is crucial for agritech companies like yours to have? 

We need more governmental multi-agency support in carving out urban spaces for technology deployment or proof of concept, establishment of public private partnerships for scaling as well as experienced horticulturists to join our ranks. 

 

What’s next for Sky Greens? 

Since our establishment since 2012, we have implemented our systems in Malaysia, Thailand, China and Vietnam. We are very excited that we are going to implement a project in Canada later his year, on the other side of the globe.  

Interview with Roshe Wong, Head of Business Development, Sky Urban VFS Pte Ltd , for FOCUS #70. To read more articles from this issue, download your digital copy here

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