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This is your typical bowl of salad.
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But have you ever wondered where
your fresh greens come from?
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Or how they even ended up on our shelves?
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One partnership is bringing
technology and modern farming
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together to advance agriculture and feed a nation.
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Artisan Green is an indoor
hydroponics farm based in Singapore.
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We are a commercial farm that
supplies to not just the retail
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supermarkets, but also to the hotels,
restaurants and cafes in Singapore.
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If we are talking about tech for sustainability,
this was a very good example of what we can do.
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Together, they’re building a
Farm Management System designed
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to transform modern farming with
automation and digitalization.
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So for the farm management system,
we have different modules inside.
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We have modules whereby it manages
the nutrients, the lighting as well,
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and the environmental parameters.
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For this collaboration, what we're trying to do is
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increase the amount of yields that we have
using lesser resources, such as manpower.
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We found Artisan Green as
a partner because they are
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focusing on building vertical farms to
ensure the food security of Singapore.
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And in the same moment, we would like
to introduce our technology there to
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see how we can support them and also, of
course, generating healthy food for us.
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Behind many thriving farms
is a story of collaboration,
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and this one began with a shared
vision for sustainable food production.
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Having a first contact with Ray and
discussing what we want to do was exciting.
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It was a very random coincidence.
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Siemens reached out to me through LinkedIn
and asked about our digitalization plans.
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It's actually our first
collaboration with a tech company.
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The interesting part of this partnership was that
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we were able to work very close with plant
scientists and learning a common language,
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how we are translating their knowledge and
our knowledge into a farm management system.
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We're good at what we do, and
that's farming, whereas Siemens,
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they're great at automation and digitalization.
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So by utilizing the platform
that we're building with Siemens,
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we're able to digitalize all the plant
science and put it into a database.
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Hey guys, welcome to our indoor farm.
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Spanning 300 square meters, Artisan
Green's farm is home to 20 grain racks,
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where up to 20 varieties of fresh
produce are cultivated with care.
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Using advanced hydroponics in a
fully controlled indoor setting,
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these greens are grown pesticide free
right in the heart of urban Singapore.
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At this point of time, we are at
an early stage with Artisan Green.
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We are starting with an automation platform,
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so a system which is controlling relevant
machines, processes, in a vertical farm.
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So the heart of it is the farm management system.
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And inside this farm management
system is a recipe management.
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This is our prototype for the
precision nutrient injector.
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It interfaces with the Siemens
platform that we are building,
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and what happens is that in that platform, we're
able to store over 100 different types of recipes.
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We're able to specify any nutrient
profiles that we want, and on demand,
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the machine will mix it up and then
deliver it to any grow beds that we want.
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The farm management system exactly controls
how a crop is growing, how much fertilizer,
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how much water, what is required at
which time of the growth process.
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It is, in the same moment, giving remote access
to Artisan Green so, at any point of time, they
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can see what is the status, what is their energy
consumption, what is their water consumption.
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Within the Farm Management System,
automated lighting control plays a key role.
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LED lighting within an indoor farm is the most
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critical component because plants
need light to photosynthesize.
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Blue light activates the
secondary metabolites of a plant,
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so it is able to produce more aromatic compounds.
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Light is not like only light on and off.
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It could even have different
colours or different UV strengths.
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We worked together to understand
how much light is really required.
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Is this useful to have light
for 24 hours or 12 hours?
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The energy manager module from Siemens
allows us to monitor the equipment and
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with that we’re able to make sure that
the equipment is running at 100% efficacy,
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and we’re able to save energy, and as
a result, electricity costs that way.
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Growing and harvesting the perfect
crop is never a simple task.
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Here at this humble farm, manpower is
still at the core of its operations.
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On average, Artisan Green packs
over a tonne of produce each month,
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with spinach reigning as its top seller.
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Singapore currently imports
over 90% of its food supply.
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As a nation of foodies, this
reliance comes with challenges,
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including the volatility of global food
markets, climate shifts and disease outbreaks.
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To make its food supply more resilient, the
Singapore government has outlined an ambitious “30
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by 30” vision, aiming to sustainably produce 30%
of the nation’s nutritional needs locally by 2030.
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In order to meet Singapore's
vision for food resilience,
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we have to be more productive because, in a
place like Singapore, where land is scarce,
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we are limited by the amount of space
that we set aside for agricultural usage.
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So, with a partnership like Siemens and Artisan
Green, we're able to grow more with less.
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And this is a large contribution
also to sustainability.
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In a controlled environment, you
can reduce the food wastage by
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better planning when you want to harvest and grow.
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Unlike traditional soil-based farming,
hydroponic farms use 90% less water.
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Our water bill is actually better than the
average household; it's only $150 per month.
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We're able to grow over a tonne of
produce, so it is actually quite cheap.
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We're looking to shift towards a more
sustainable grow media, which is perlite.
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It's a volcanic rock that's expanded, and
this is a resource that's a lot cheaper.
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But this is just the beginning.
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As Singapore’s population reaches
a record high of over 6 million,
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the need for sustainable food sources
will become even more crucial.
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We were awarded a two-hectare plot of land
by the Singapore Food Agency last year,
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in 2024, and we plan to have the new
farm built out by the end of 2025.
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Our new indoor farm is slated to be 18
times larger than this current farm.
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So from a 300 square meter farm, we are
expanding to a 5500 square meter farm.
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In terms of production, we are scaling it up to
30 times more than what we're currently doing.
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Siemens is developing the
farming management systems
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that we'll be using within our farming operations.
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They will also be providing the
programmable logic controllers
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for us to automate the entire farming process.
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The whole system is designed in
such a way that we are scalable.
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If you need more recipes, you're
adding more computing power.
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And with this, you can drive
from one farm to several farms.
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At this point of time, it is very difficult
to reach the limit of the possibilities.
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With every new farm that takes root, the nation
steps closer to securing food for generations.
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Singapore’s foray into agriculture has
been relatively nascent, so we lack
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that deep agricultural knowledge and expertise.
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Instead of looking at other farms as competitors,
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hopefully we get to grow our talent pool and
have more people interested in this space.
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Working with Artisan Green
is a big learning for us,
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how we can translate plant
science into the digital world.
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The challenges which we have today
requires many companies working together
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to reach sustainability target,
decarbonization targets.
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And therefore cross-sector collaborations are so
important that you can really change the world.
