The Problem

Resource-scarce Singapore has always been heavily reliant on food imports. The government puts in a lot of resources into improving the nation’s food security and making Singapore more self-sufficient. In 2019, the 30 by 30 goal was announced, which aims to produce 30% of our food demand locally by 2030. This has ignited a spark in Singapore's high-tech farming industry, which is highly dependent on tech-savvy workers. If we want to groom a generation of high-tech farmers, we need to start early.

However, our team has found that in primary and secondary schools, high-tech farming is barely ever talked about. This signals a misalignment between current primary and secondary school science education and the growing demand for high tech farmers, with few efforts to raise awareness of high-tech farming at those levels. This is a gap we aim to bridge.

 

“Looking to the future, a key long-term strategy is to educate the next generation of ‘farmers of the future’. We need to promote agro-technopreneurship. We should aspire to be the Silicon Valley for agro-technology.”

Zaid Hamzah, founder of Food Security Exchange

 

Our Solution

Our solution is Plantr, comprising an AR-IoT enabled phone app (PlantrApp) and an interfacing smart plant incubator (PlantrBox), that teaches young students about plant growth and smart farming. PlantrBox has modules such as grow lights, fans, water pump and sensors, optimised to interface with AR and IoT features of PlantrApp for delivery of high-quality educational content. Additionally, remote monitoring and control of PlantrBox through PlantrApp is possible through our IoT infrastructure.

The Societal Impact

Plantr is expected to spur greater interest in agri-tech careers among our youth, in our bid to bolster Singapore’s position as a regional agri-tech hub.

The cutting edge technologies that the students get exposed to while using Plantr will help with cultivating a technologically-forward generation of students.

Ultimately, Plantr contributes to improving our nation’s food security in the long run as agri-tech related careers become more attractive to the productive populations to come.

Industry Partner