Following SAP Southeast Asia’s Industry Cluster Lead for Public Sector U Chee Lioy’s interview with GovInsider in June on SAP’s sustainability efforts and on being a strategic partner of Singapore, he now shared insights on how new technology in agriculture can help deliver the country’s ’30 by 30’ goal.
Singapore is one of Asia’s industrialised countries and one of the most competitive economies in the world that has a vibrant free-market economy, reasonable income distribution, and an established financial business framework. Since its independence in 1965, the city-state has demonstrated remarkable growth with much credit given to the government’s sound economic strategy, excellent infrastructure, numerous foreign investors, and highly skilled workforce.
Singapore’s Food Story
However, like most nations, Singapore was not spared from COVID-19’s massive global economic disruptions, especially that the country heavily relies on international trade including importing food for its 5.7million people. According to Singapore Food Agency (SFA), the country imports more than 90{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of its food from more than 170 countries and regions– a strategy that has worked for the country for many years now. Recognising its limitation in land area and agriculture, Singapore employs long-term planning and proactive actions to safeguard its food supply, earning the nation the top spot in the Global Food Security Index for the second year running in 2019.
Moreover, the country has acknowledged that emerging trends affecting food supply such as climate change, an increasing population that is projected to grow by 50{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} in 2050, and prioritisation of local needs over international trade need to be addressed urgently. The SFA has designed three broad strategies aptly called the 3 Food Baskets to further back Singapore’s food security: Diversify Import Sources, Grow Local, and Grow Overseas.
Leveraging New Technology in Agriculture for ’30 by 30’ Goal
According to U Chee Lioy, SAP SeA Industry Cluster Lead for Public Sector, technology is key to unlocking Singapore’s food production potential. Emerging technologies in agriculture can help increase farming processes efficiencies, ensure food safety, and overcome manpower challenges– all critical to achieving the ’30 by 30’ goal.
Though all of Singapore’s 3 Food Baskets leverage technology in some ways, the Grow Local initiative is one wherein Singapore can maximise the capabilities of new technology in agriculture in securing food supply and quality. Even before the pandemic, SFA has already plotted its ambitious goal to produce 30{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of the country’s nutritional needs locally by 2030, a significant jump from its current food production at 10{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22}. The ‘30 by 30’ initiative aims to transform Singapore’s agri-food industry into one that is highly productive and employs climate-resilient, resource-efficient, and sustainable technologies.
Chee Lioy mentioned emerging technologies in agriculture that Singapore can maximise to improve farming efficiencies such as sensors that can measure soil and weather conditions, camera-equipped satellites, and drones that can even help distribute bugs into fields as a form of natural pest control. He also mentioned that robots will soon bring automation to farming processes such as weeding, fertilising, seeding, and pruning plants.
He highlighted that these technologies have become more affordable and accurate in providing data that will allow farmers to take necessary actions to ensure products are of high quality.
SAP’s Solutions for Agribusiness
With regards to ensuring food safety, Chee Lioy emphasised the importance of keeping track of the sources of food supplies and how SAP can support this critical challenge. Organisations can leverage SAP’s Agribusiness Platform, a single logistics platform, to help manage their supply chain, which includes quickly identifying any unsafe food sources and creating accountability in the supply chain.
SAP offers a wide range of solutions that helps organisations run core business processes along the entire agribusiness value chain more efficiently. SAP’s Agribusiness Platform touches various areas of the agribusiness such as Agricultural Production and Farming, Origination and Trading, Commodity and Food Processing, Food Supply Chain Management, and Marketing and Sales.
Chee Lioy stressed that using the right skills and tools will help Singapore overcome its manpower challenges. For instance, Ukrainian grain producer MGrain leveraged SAP S/4HANA to help the company streamline business processes and reduce manpower requirements, which resulted in increasing the company’s exports sixfold with only double its previous manpower.
SAP has more upcoming innovations for the agribusiness including new SAP Fiori apps for SAP Agricultural Contract Management to create, maintain, price, and mass-price contracts and integration of SAP Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain with SAP Farm Management by Vistex, among others.
