The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has launched a public tender to lease out the rooftops of public buildings for urban farming in the city-state.
Rooftops of nine multi-storey car parks managed by the Housing & Development Board (HDB) – Singapore’s public housing agency – are up for rent.
It’s the first such tender to be launched in full by the Singapore government, following a pilot scheme last year which saw the top level of an HDB car park in the Ang Mo Kio district turned into a farm.
Successful applicants will be able to use the nine new sites to farm “vegetables and other food crops,” a joint SFA and HDB statement said. They can also be used for related purposes such as “the packing [and] storage of produce.” The sites range in size from 1,808 square meters to 3,311 square meters, and will be rented out for up to three years.
Five of the rooftops are classified as “single sites.” The remaining four are grouped into two “clusters” of two rooftops each. According to the SFA, the latter are better suited for production at scale, and successful tenderers will be awarded both sites in each cluster.