Feeding cities: Singapore's approach to land use planning for urban agriculture

Abstract

Commercial urban agriculture is typically restricted to agriculture land use, green or open spaces, or under-utilised or undeveloped land. As urbanising cities face the double threats of urban food insecurity and land scarcity, multi-functional urban land uses that integrate rather than separate agriculture from other land uses could be a critical adaptation for the sustainability of future cities. With less than 1% of land in agricultural use, the high-density, city-state of Singapore is testing integrative approaches to where and how food can be grown in the city. The shift toward land use multiplicity is prompting cross-agency collaboration in policy development. The aims of this paper were to map changes in agricultural use of land and describe emerging policy trends in Singapore related to cross-agency collaboration and land use multiplicity. Given growing global attention to urban food policy, Singapore is a timely example where policies support integrated urban food production through high-tech intensification, a model AgriFood Innovation Park, and promotion of industrial and commercial land uses toward efficient and value-added activities that include urban farms. More examples of agriculture co-located with other land uses are needed to understand opportunities and challenges related to multi- or shared-use spaces particularly for tenure rights. Resolving regulatory and legal constraints will enable high and low tech farms to produce substantially more food in the city.