Urban Farming

Developing cities face challenges in creating sustainable food source for themselves as they have limited resources for agriculture. Additionally, some imports may not be easily accessible or suitable for consumption. Thus, our solution is to implement an urban farming concept using existing spaces/structures to provide sustainable food source.

Our solution implements the concept of urban farming into modern city infrastructures. The specialty of our idea is that we are growing our own produce at where our consumers are, to overall reduce the reliance on food importations. With the use of hydroponic farming, minimal effort is needed for maintenance of the edible plants and they are also able to be grown quickly. The farm also makes use of rainwater harvesting to enhance self-sustainability through reusing of water supply. All of this in turn, increases our community access as it is grown on any existing accessible locations with sufficient shelter and space. With accessibility, it also minimizes transportation cost from the food importations, where the money can be redirected for other useful purposes. Other than the plantation and harvesting, watering, providing nutrients and sunlight to the plants does not require any manpower. Furthermore, the produce that has been harvested can be consumed by the community. This not only offers a solution to the shortage of food in certain countries but also increases the amount of food made available to them. If this solution gets scaled across the world, many developing countries can sustain their own food source and prevent food shortages down the road. It would also bring about a change in the environment due to the reduction of carbon footprint from being self-sustainable. This solution has potential as a business by selling the fresh produce to communities for consumption if it were to be commercialized. Lastly, employment opportunities will eventually arise due to the need to maintain this urban farm (E.g. maintenance personnel, crop farmers, etc).

Our solution mainly solves the reliance on importation of food source by producing our own, on existing structures such as roof top, walk ways, etc. With the growing of edible plants in a big scale, it allows developing city to be self-sustainable. This will in turn, save money and it can be redirected for other useful purposes.

Our project allows food to be accessible at where the consumer is, and requires minimal effort for being self-sustainable and minimises transportation cost. The production of food is blended into the cities’ infrastructure which will bring about a change in implementing the concept. As the vegetables are grown within the vicinity, consumer will be able to harvest the crops of their choice while ensuring freshness too. As the shortages of food will eventually lead to a global crisis by the end of 2050 and it is expected that more than half the world would rely on food imports. 

The impact of our solution aims to reduce reliance on food importation and save costs which allows developing countries to redirect the money for building infrastructures. This solution uses hydroponic farming and rainwater harvesting to grow edible plants which helps decrease carbon footprint that is essential for the environment. In addition, it provides employment (for the local people as maintenance and harvesting role) opportunities for the people in these cities. Such as maintenance personnel and harvesting personnel to tend to the farms.

Our solution is a deviation from the traditional farming methods which can be implemented into urban cities. It does not require massive investment on structure needed for growing of crops. The unique designed structure can be implemented in any covered walkways and link bridges; i.e. basically any accessible locations with sufficient shelter and space. Other than the plantation and harvesting, watering, providing nutrients and sunlight to the plants does not require any manpower and profits can be earned via sale of produce. If this solution grows to a larger scale, it can drastically reduce carbon footprint and provide employment opportunities.

It provides sustainable food source at a minimum effort and low operation costs.  

Communities can be part of this project. Everyone plays a part to ensure that the crops are not “abused” by any unauthorised personnel. The communities pays a small of sum of fee for the harvested crop. 

Initial stages would require crowdfunding or seeking investments from interested organisations (E.g. Venture capitalist, angels, etc.). Partnering with relevant government agencies to receive the necessary fundings and cooperation for the growth of the solution. As our solution starts to grow, it will be able to generate its own revenue from the sales of the produce and pay concurrently for the costs incurred.

The first factor would be getting corporations via pitching to invest into our initial phase to kick off our project. Next would be vandalism. If the communities choses to disrupt the progress of the farm, the purpose of self-sustainability would be defeated. Third, would be the quality of produce if dry spells were to occur. Although it can be managed by bringing in water from another source apart from rainwater.

Participating in sustainable business idea competitions as part of our third year internship in school. We hope to gain more knowledge and experience from competitions so that we can come up with better innovative ideas that can help shape the future into a better place. 

NIL

NIL