Singapore’s blessed with many things but land mass isn’t one of them. Farms took a back seat to urbanisation and, well, that meant that we’ve had to depend on other nations to meet our nutritional needs. However, with advances in technology, this need not be the case. With the launch of the “30 by 30” initiative, Singapore’s moving towards supplying 30% of its own nutritional needs by 2030. And Tan Lay Hoon, co-founder of Intelligent Eco Farm, is one of many who’s riding that wave.

The Founder

By day, Lay Hoon is a certified consultant helping food manufacturers improve productivity and meet ISO 9001 standards. By night (and weekends), she’s a farmer and co-founder of Intelligent Eco Farm. If you’re thinking of wide open fields and getting your hands dirty under the scorching sun, you’re mistaken. This all takes place in the comfort of an apartment. And for the space it occupies, it’s far more productive than traditional farms. The business includes supply of hydroponics systems (both indoor and outdoor), soil farming solutions /systems, other automatic growing systems and automatic composting machines. Miss Tan also runs hydroponic workshops!

Getting into Greens

“I started off growing plants in my HDB corridor. I’d put them there with nice pots because I love decorating them. The next thing, they’d get stolen. When we moved house, my husband was very sweet. He deliberately picked a home that had a balcony and enough space for planting. So I started with flowers.”

From there, it wasn’t long before she started thinking about growing fruits she could eat.

“I grew up in a kampung (village). We’d climb up rambutan trees and eat fresh fruits. Since then, I’ve never had rambutans as fresh as those.”

Not one to rest on her laurels, she moved on to vegetables but it wasn’t without it’s challenges.

“Vegetables aren’t easy to grow. In Singapore, you need a greenhouse, otherwise they’d either get burnt under the scorching sun or drowned under torrential rain. It was too much work balancing farming with a busy lifestyle. That’s when I looked into hydroponics.”

And just in time too. With the “30 by 30” initiative, subsidised courses were easily available and she started learning how to plant vegetables in controlled environments. And it was perfect for her.

“With my consultancy background, I love how I can get maximum output with minimum effort.”

The Hydroponic Rabbit Hole

The hydroponic system that Lay Hoon uses comes with automated lighting and irrigation cycles. While that might be enough for most, Lay Hoon had dabbled in modding it a little more to take other measurements.

“The system’s off-the-shelf but I wanted it to do more to increase crop yield. So I added in systems that would take care of nutrient dosing, and pH and EC (Electrical Conductivity) monitors. EC tells you how much nutrients are in the water solution. It’s unproductive to have to measure all these by hand.”

Greener Pastures

These days, you can find all kinds of fruit and vegetables in Lay Hoon’s apartment; fruit like jambu fruits, passionfruit, and bananas; vegetables like choy sum, bak choy, and lettuce; herbs like basil, mint, and pandan.

Pests are not usually a concern when it comes to hydroponics. However, the same can’t be said for her soil-based plants.

“I grow blue pea flowers out on the soil but I have to compete with people who would come in as early as 5am to help themselves to it. And then there’s the occasional hornbill that would come get the fruits,” said Lay Hoon.

Spreading the Hydroponic Love

Lay Hoon now sells her vegetables and hydroponic units. She admits that not many homeowners are keen on hydroponics. At $1800 per hydroponic unit, most think the return of investment (ROI) isn’t quite worth it.

“It shouldn’t be about the ROI. If what you’re after is vegetables without pesticide or freshly picked produce, it’s really worth it,” Lay Hoon adds.

Interestingly, many offices have been more enthusiastic about installing a hydroponic system on premises.

“There are quite a lot of benefits to having the system. There’s, of course, the fresh vegetables, but the presence of the plants also mitigates CO2 build-up in the office, and planting in general is therapeutic,” Lay Hoon says.

Lay Hoon also relates that in one office, there is a friendly competition to see which teams can produce better crops on their respective hydroponic systems. 

Advice on Hydroponics

For those still contemplating on whether or not to start their very own hydroponic farm, either privately or commercially, Lay Hoon has this advice:

“Don’t be afraid. Just start. People spend too much time researching to the point of not doing anything. It’s good to just kickstart and then learn along the way. If you fail, it doesn’t matter; just find out why and try again. That’s your lesson. As you fail, you learn more. As long as you observe and talk to your plants, you’ll be successful.”

Posted on 29th April 2022

Kenny Tan,

SiXiDES Writer