Floating farms are a prelude to floating cities

FLOATING farms can secure the food supply chain of coastal metropolises and open up the possibility for the development of floating cities. With rising sea levels, coastal subsidence and a growing global population, floating farms are the first step in securing the future of coastal cities across the world.

The opportunity is particularly meaningful in Singapore, which is striving to establish its food security and source 30 per cent of its nutritional needs domestically by 2030. The city-state can serve as a testbed for the development and deployment of floating farms for aquaculture or other forms of agriculture at scale.

Currently, 9 per cent of fish consumed domestically are sourced from offshore farms termed kelongs. However, these are designed cheaply and do not adhere to formal structural design codes. They are also not optimised for large-scale production of fish protein, while also being exposed to environmental threats like algal blooms.