Page 219 - Towards A Sustainable Future 2024

V-plus Agritech Pte Ltd

Introduction

Our sustainability project centred on diminishing the carbon
footprint of an aquaponics farm situated at Neo Tiew Road,
Singapore, currently managed V-plus Agritech Pte Ltd
(V-plus Agritech). The farm is designed primarily to utilise
sunlight, nutrients, and circulating water to cultivate fresh
vegetables and fish. Spanning approximately 1,000 sq ft of
land, the farm, erected in 2021, comprises 16 aisles of vertical
planting towers positioned atop enclosed aquaculture
systems (Figure 1).

The farm converts fish waste into an organic plant nutrient
source using nitrifying bacteria. Subsequently, these
nutrients are conveyed by circulating water, that traverses
through vertical planting towers, via a filtration pump Figure 1: The integrated aquaponics farm engaged
system. Operating within a closed-loop water system, in this sustainability project.
all water is cycled back into the enclosed tank for reuse,
enabling the farm to operate with a 90% reduction in water Environmental Review
usage compared to traditional farming methods.
During the environmental review, the ESI team evaluated
With the assistance of farmers Mr Nelson and Mr William, the the company’s aquaponics system. The facility operates
ESI team gained insight into the operation of the aquaponics with low maintenance requirements, abstaining from using
farm. The company provided monthly utility consumption pesticides, fertilisers, or herbicides. All water used in the farm
data, enabling the team to compile an overview of utility circulates within a closed-loop system, facilitated by two
consumption and associated carbon emissions. Analysing single-phase pumps operating to ensure sufficient dissolved
the data, the team identified climate-related aspects oxygen levels for the fish, and a continuous nutrient supply
impacting and devised eco-solutions to mitigate these for the vegetables.
issues, with input from Prof Jeff Obbard from NYAA.
The continuous operation of the water pumps results in
The primary objective of the environmental review was to relatively high electricity consumption. However, during
review the environmental aspects of the aquaponics farm’s the initial design phase, the company meticulously selected
operations and then implement eco-solutions to mitigate high-efficiency equipment to optimise overall performance.
its environmental and carbon footprint while ensuring Consequently, the farm boasts a commendable yield-to-
minimum disruption to existing operations. input (Y/I) ratio of approximately 0.81, consuming an average
of only 86m3 of water per month.

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