Supporting Singapore's "30-by30" Food Security Target: Finding the "Sweet Spot" in Property Taxation ; RSIS Policy Report ; No. 191203

In: http://hdl.handle.net/11540/11529

Abstract

Singapore's present status of importing over 90 per cent of its domestic food consumption needs is a result of the city-state's deliberate industrialisation policy to transform from third world to first over the past decades, reducing the farmlands for food production from about 15,000 hectares in the 1960s to about 600 hectares today to make room for higher value-adding industries. However, during the March 2019 Parliament Debate, Minister Masagos Zuklifli of the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) had aptly observed that "climate change brings new existential threats." The Singapore Food Agency's website notes the risk that Singapore may not have stable food imports from its food sources. Challenges (droughts, storms, pests and diseases, and climate change) faced by food producing countries could quickly spill-over to importing countries when they put their own domestic food security interests first. This makes food security a transboundary issue, which is beyond the state's direct control. To guard against these threats, Singapore is now aspiring to increase its food self-sufficiency from less than 10 per cent today to 30 per cent by 2030, also known as the "30-by-30" target. Given the high opportunity cost of land, the direction Minister Masagos proposed is to follow the water sector's example whereby self-sufficiency and economic goals are achieved conjointly. Singapore's "Water Story" is about its use of new technologies such as desalination and water recycling to contribute to its 70 per cent water self-sufficiency, while also creating approximately 14,400 jobs and contributing SGD 2.5 billion to GDP.