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Singapore AGRICULTURE
Orchard Road, now one of Singapore's most up-scale
thoroughfares, got its name because it originally was
lined with
fruit orchards and vegetable gardens. Although
contemporary
Singapore still maintained a tiny agricultural base, by
1988
urbanization had reduced the land area used for farming to
only
about 3 percent of the total. Nonetheless, with intensive
production, the farming sector met part of the domestic
demand for
essential fresh farm produce: poultry, eggs, pork, some
vegetables,
and fish. In 1988 there were 2,075 licensed farms
occupying only
2,037 hectares of land, with a total output of some S$362
million
worth of farm produce. A decade earlier farm holdings had
covered
1,280 hectares.
The Primary Production Department, under the Ministry
of
National Development, ensured an adequate and regular
supply of
fresh produce and provided support for agro-industries,
including
research and development aimed at improving commercial and
hightechnology farming. The department projected in 1988 that
a total
of 2,000 hectares of land in ten agro-technology parks
would be
developed and rented out for long-term farming over the
next
decade.
The government began phasing out pig farming in 1984
because of
odor and environmental pollution. Some 200 pig farms
raising about
500,000 pigs in 1987 were scheduled to be reduced to 22
farms with
300,000 pigs by 1990. Imports from Malaysia, Indonesia,
and
Thailand would be increased to meet domestic needs. Some
1,000
poultry farms kept a total of about 2.2 million layers,
1.6 million
broilers, 245,000 breeders, and 645,000 ducks. Singapore
remained
free of major animal diseases.
Singapore grew 5.6 percent of its total supply of
180,000 tons
of fresh vegetables in 1988 and imported the rest from
Malaysia,
Indonesia, China, and Australia. The main crops cultivated
locally
included vegetables, mushrooms, fruit, orchids, and
ornamental
plants. About 370 vegetable farms produced an estimated
10,000 tons
of vegetables, and mushroom cultivation expanded rapidly
after the
mid-1980s. The Mushroom Unit of the Primary Production
Development
conducted research on mushroom cultivation and advised
commercial
mushroom growers, who produced a variety of mushrooms for
the local
market.
Noted for its orchids, Singapore exported flowers worth
S$13.8
million in 1988, mainly to Western Europe, Japan,
Australia, and
the United States. Singapore's 153 orchid farms produced
another
S$2.2 million worth of flowers for the domestic market.
Local fishermen provided about 13 percent of the
country's
110,000-ton fresh fish supply in 1988, using three major
fishing
methods--trawling, gill-netting, and long-lining. There
were about
1,170 licensed fishermen operating nearly 400 fishing
vessels, most
of which were motorized. The Jurong Port and Market
Complex was a
major fish landing point for both domestic and foreign
vessels and
handled 84 percent of the total fresh fish supply in 1988.
Many
foreign vessels brought their catches there for processing
and
reexport. Fresh fish arrived also by truck from Malaysia
and
Thailand and by sea and air from other neighboring
countries.
Fish farming was a small but growing field. In 1988
seventyfour licensed marine fish farms raised mainly high-value
fish such
as grouper and sea bass in a total of forty hectares of
coastal
waters. Many of the farms had also introduced prawn
farming in
floating cages. Exports of ornamental fish for aquariums
amounted
to S$60 million in 1988. Some 400 licensed aquarium fish
farms
operated in Singapore in 1988, including 36 commercial
farms
operating in the Tampines Aquarium Fish Farming Estate.
* * *
Lawrence B. Krause, et al., present an interesting and
readable
background analysis in The Singapore Economy
Reconsidered.
For a summary of Singaporean economic development between
1959 and
1984, see Singapore: Twenty-five Years of
Development edited
by You Poh Seng and Lim Chong Yah. The 1986 Report of the
Economic
Committee The Singapore Economy: New Directions
(Singaporean
Ministry of Trade and Industry) is vital for understanding
the 1985
recession and the government's strategies for overcoming
it and
entering the 1990s. Analysis on this same subject is
provided in
Policy Options for the Singapore Economy by Lim
Chong Yah,
et al. Margaret W. Sullivan's "Can Survive, La" Cottage
Industries in High-rise Singapore presents a
sidewalk-level
view of Singapore's small-scale manufacturing and economic
and
social psychology. The weekly Far Eastern Economic
Review
[Hong Kong] provides up-to-date information on economic
events and
developments. Statistical information from the Singaporean
government abounds in the form of annual yearbooks from
the various
ministries--Culture, Trade and Industry, and the
Department of
Statistics--and the very useful, although promotional,
Singapore
1989 and its annual equivalents. (For further
information and
complete citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of December 1989
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