Artisan Green collaborates with Siemens to digitise and scale Singapore's farming operations

Singapore’s leading modern indoor hydroponics farm, Artisan Green teams up with tech giant Siemens to pioneer a highly scalable integrated Farm Management System to accelerate farming practices nationwide and build a more resilient food future for the nation.

Established in 2018, Artisan Green has harnessed vertical farming technology to achieve year-round production of crops, ensuring a consistent supply of fresh produce to 41 supermarkets islandwide, as well as online platforms like Redmart and GrabFood.

Aligned with Singapore's ‘30 by 30' goal, the newly integrated farming operations will enhance crop quality and yield. It is expected to produce 25 tonnes of greens per month, which is estimated to generate a monthly supply of over 134,000 meals with leafy green vegetables.

The partnership was formalised at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) held at the Industrial Transformation Asia-Pacific 2023 (ITAP) conference today.

From left to right: Benjamin Ang, Director of Horticulture of Artisan Green, Ray Poh, Managing Director and Founder of Artisan Green, Isabel Chong, Head of Digital Industries for ASEAN at Siemens and Sascha Maennl, Head of Digital Industries Factory Automation for APAC at Siemens pose for a photo after an MOU between Siemens and Artisan Green was signed at ITAP 2023 (Photo: Siemens)

“Singapore’s heavy dependence on food imports, which account for more than 90% of our food supply, exposes us to potential food security risks, exacerbated by factors such as population growth, urbanisation, climate change, and unprecedented events like the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s why we need new ways of smart farming that integrate automation and digitalisation, so as to produce more with less, and to produce locally,” commented Isabel Chong, Head of Siemens Digital Industries in ASEAN.

The partnership will leverage automation and digitalisation, and an uncompromised focus on plant science to advance sustainable farming operations at Artisan Green’s farm.

Siemens’ booth at ITAP 2023 showcased the company’s latest solutions for Digital Enterprises in ASEAN (Photo: Siemens)

Farm management system elevates crop quality and efficiency

Powered by Siemens technologies, Artisan Green will be able to gain precise control over its hydroponic system, enabling it to do the following:

• Remotely access and monitor the farm operations, so that the growing parameters can be easily and  securely set to an optimum to ensure highest-quality crop production from anywhere.

• An integrated recipe control system to facilitate the selection of the right cultivation program for each crop. The system can store and manage recipes including lighting intensity and duration, irrigation schedules, nutritional needs and temperature to enhance resource efficiency. It can also help to minimise the risk of crop diseases, pests and weather-related disruptions.

• With the optimum control over the farming operations, sales planning and scheduling can be adjusted to meet the demand efficiently and optimise seeding and growing tasks.

 Overall, these technologies will enable Artisan Green to:

• Boost Artisan Green's current yield of leafy vegetables and herbs by a remarkable 25-fold.

• Achieve an impressive 95% reduction in water usage compared to traditional farming.

• Reduce the farm-to-table carbon footprint while minimising overall waste throughout the harvest.

• Eliminate the need for pesticides. 

Conference attendees viewing the Artisan Green vertical farm exhibit at Siemens’ ITAP 2023 booth (Photo: Siemens)

Elevating energy efficiency for sustainable agriculture

Utilising a range of advanced technologies such as Artisan Green’s proprietary Precision Nutrient Injector, a Chilled Water cooling system as well as Siemens’ energy management software, Artisan Green effectively reduces the energy consumption of traditional indoor growing systems by half. As a result, Artisan Green’s new farm is projected to operate at only 15 kWh per kilogram of produce, exceeding Singapore Food Agency's Clean & Green standards.

According to Ray Poh, Founder of Artisan Green, this partnership is pivotal in advancing the local vertical farming industry. He stated, "Supported by Siemens’ state-of-the-art technological capabilities, we are able to advance our vertical farming operations and would greatly improve the efficiency of our manpower across operations, business planning and R&D. This will allow us to achieve greater production volumes at a lower operating cost; enabling us to provide fresh, high quality local produce at affordable prices for Singaporeans. We fully intend to set a new benchmark for hydroponics operations and hi-tech agriculture in Singapore and the world."

The partnership between Artisan Green and Siemens marks a significant milestone in the pursuit of sustainable and resilient agriculture in Singapore.