Conventional forms of agriculture can be land-, water-, energy- and greenhouse gas emission-intensive. With growing urban populations and potential disruptions to food supplies, food security has become a pressing issue which has resulted in growing interest to produce food in urban environments. A key challenge of urban agriculture or farming is the limited land availability in urban settings.  An agri-tech company has developed an innovative vertical farming system that simplifies the process of growing pesticide-free vegetables productively within the constraints of urban spaces. The utilisation of vertical spaces – such as unused or under-utilised spaces like rooftops – uses less space for more produce and enhances the amount of harvest by 70% per sq ft. Compared to conventional farming methods, this technology promises 3.5x more yield with 30% less human effort. 

By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the world earth’s estimate 9.8 billion population will reside in urban centers. In addition, factors such as climate change, limited arable land and pollution will make indoor farming an attractive option. Current technologies used in traditional farming will definitely be inadequate and for Singapore, it will be even more vital to achieve food security with limited resources.  The technology described herein consists of a software and a horticultural LED system to target two main concerns of urban farming - operation cost and crop’s yield. The technology allows remotely control of all light's characteristics, including spectrum, photoperiod and intensity depending on the types of crops. This analytics can result in optimizing energy costs and also improving crop’s yield. This feature will be useful for farmers new to LED lighting. In addition, farmers can also use this technology to forumate their own “light” recipe to optimise the growth rate of their crops. The technology provider is seeking for collaboration from industry partners to commercialise this technology.

Wine production has been a regional business near vineyard. Nevertheless, it is highly dependent on the geographical and climate of an area, for places where climate is not suitable for the growth of wine grapes, production of grape wine is costly or unavailable. On the other hand, tropical countries with ample production of a variety of fruits have to deal with wastage and economical loss as unsold fruits rotten. Dragon fruit (also known as pitaya or pitahaya) is a widely cultivated in many Southeast Asian countries. It is commonly consumed fresh or used for juice and puree production. The processing of dragon fruit into clear juice is difficult on an industrial scale due to its significant content of mucilaginous polysaccharide substances present in the flesh. The present invention seeks to address these problems by providing a method to produce a dragon fruit-derived alcoholic beverage using non-Saccharomyces yeasts fermentation. The resultant red dragon fruit beverage has lower alcohol concentration, appealing red-purple colour, pleasant fruity taste and aroma with a high concentration of natural antioxidants from the flesh pigment (betalains).

In Singapore, at least 30 tonnes of okara are generated daily and discarded as food waste or recycled as an animal feed.  Despite its richness in nutrients, the reuse of okara as human food is limited due to high amount of indigestible fibre and low palatability.  The team has developed a cost-effective enzymatic and fermentaion techniques to transform okara as a functional ingredient for applying into food innovations.

An Israel company has designed an innovative seed technology company that introduces Smarter Seeds, non-GMO seeds for human consumption with market-transforming characteristics, superior nutritional profiles and improved crop yields. As the only seed breeding company that focuses on the food industry, it allows clients to design their own ingredients. The products are brought to market through partnerships and collaboration agreements with top-tier food companies. With this breeding technology, natural barriers no longer is a challenge to the farmers and serves as a game-changer in the economies of their market. The technology and products are IP protected which serves as the basis to endless seed varieties for specific needs from clients from food companies.  

A faster, sustainable plant extraction method that is column-less and a zero-waste processing method, validated at pilot extraction scale. The method is non-ethanol based that optimizes the yield of bioactives from botanicals. This continuous cyclical extraction methodology has been validated at one tonne production scale to yield plant extracts of higher bioactive purity at a fraction of current production time & cost. As only food grade, non-ethanol based, solvent is used, extracted ingredients are Halal-certifiable. The method uses one process to extract the volatile components of botanicals after the extraction of minute amount of non-volatile bioactives, reaping two or more products with minimal or zero waste generation. This methodology is also able to recover plant proteins/soluble fibre, from spent grains & homogenous plant waste generated by the food & agricultural industry, for transformation into high value functional ingredients. In summary, this technology addresses two market challenges in the Food Industry: 1. The high cost & complexity of current column chromatography-based extraction limiting mass market access to quality plant extracts. 2. High wastage of food processing side-streams in the food processing & agricultural industry. These side-streams are currently dried up, at high energy cost, into low value animal feed and fertilizers. Recovering of plant proteins/soluble fibre from these side-streams provides an alternate source of quality plant extracts for development into mass market friendly functional food & supplements, while reducing the energy cost of disposing of these side-streams

Company’s patent-pending technology upcycles by-products and solid food waste into high-protein high fiber ingredients. Company’s process was tested at the University of Minnesota, scalability tests resulted in investment from manufacturing partner Cereal Docks. 50% protein concentrate and 35% protein flour showcased at trade shows in 2018 resulted in pilot trials and the following investment from Barilla and Amadori, and won AgFunder Innovation Award 2019.

Soils which are exposed to iterative wetting and drying in a tropical region, such as Singapore, are prone to develop hydrophobic coatings on the soil particles which results in hardness and water repellence. This condition limits the rate and capacity of water absorption, which leads to poor infiltration and water retention in soil. In these circumstances, water has tendency to either evaporate or run off instead of infiltrating into the soil, resulting in poor irrigation efficacy and water wastage. This problem can be further compounded by sloping terrain such as on mounds and on hillsides, where water is more likely to run off. These terrain will dry out quickly and requires additional irrigation, while the runoff collects in lower areas, creating wet spots that contribute to promoting soil compaction and encourage disease. Such phenomenon is detrimental to plant growth. A new formulation composed of surfactants and super-absorbent polymer dispersions, RetenSol, is createdto promote both soil wetting and moisture retention.The technology has been tested for a range of plant species and shown to improve the long-term water availability, serving as a mini water reservoir. During irrigation, the innovative formulation is able touptake large amount of water, and the locked water moleculeswould not easily evaporate and serve as a reservior that will release water during drought stress.