SINGAPORE: The kampong spirit that thrives in the HDB heartlands can flourish in private housing estates too,

Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan said in his latest blog post on Sunday. He cited the example of Goldhill estate in Moulmein Constituency, where the NParks Community In Bloom (CIB) programme is being carried out. The CIB programme brings local communities together to grow their own vegetables, herbs and fruit trees in assigned areas. Mr Khaw said residents were proud to tell him during a recent visit that their garden won three top awards at the Singapore Garden Festival 2010 He said that not all residents are farmers or have green fingers and are volunteers from all walks of life who came together to build their vegetable garden from scratch. However, with advice from the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority on seeding, fertilisation and irrigation, the garden has thrived under the care of the residents. The volunteers have grown closer as they learnt how to grow and take care of their garden and reap rewards from the harvests, Mr Khaw added. The CIB programme was also extended to the rooftop of the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital in Yishun, where -- with the help of volunteers from Yishun and Sembawang -- it has been a great success benefiting patients at the hospital, Mr Khaw said. Mr Khaw commented that while Singapore is highly urbanised, we can also be like a kampong with urban farmers, adding to the neighbourhood's biodiversity and our quality of life along the way.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1192490/1/.html http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC120402-0000021/Green-thumbs-up-forcommunity-bonding-through-urban-farming
SINGAPORE : A community garden built on state land is flourishing in a neighbourhood in central Singapore. Residents in Moulmein-Kallang have been tending to the Goldhill Community Garden since 2008. They obtained approval from authorities to convert the patch of land, which had been misused by some to dump their rubbish. Today, the area is tended by over 100 residents who grow crops like lentils, winter melons and lady's fingers. The Goldhill Community Garden has an open concept. It is not fenced up. The project has even attracted residents from beyond the constituency, some who come as early as 6am to do their gardening.

Ang Kian Chuan, chairman of the Moulmein Goldhill Neighbourhood Committee, said: "The most important thing was that the neighbours were quite united in wanting this community garden. "One concern was that we should not cause any disruption or any problems environmentally, and in terms of noise, problems to the neighbours, we were able to convince them that we will be responsible."

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1190184/1/.html

Pasted onto a muddied, upturned rubber boot on a stick, the white paper notice from the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) is an incongruous sight among the lush greens and ochre browns in part of Singapores Clementi neighborhood, which is scattered with illegal farms. The message: You have trespassed on the State land. The notices were served in recent weeks to a group of residents who for decades have enjoyed access to

a sliver of former railway land sitting between some housing blocks of Singapores Clementi Avenue 4 and the Sungei Ulu Pandan canal. There, they have grown food such as sweet potatoes and the bulbous and prickly jackfruit. There are also small shrines to Chinese deities and areas reserved for shaded seating and socializing.

Matthew Allen/The Wall Street Journal

For decades, the residents have grown food such as sweet potatoes and the bulbous and prickly jackfruit on former railway land.

But following a complaint from a nearby resident whose asthmatic children were apparently suffering from the smoke created by burning leaves whenever the farmers cleared land for new planting the farmers activities have fallen under the scrutiny of authorities. They say the smoke is a health hazard, while also raising concerns about the potential for mosquito breeding in stagnant water at some ponds on the land. The SLAs notice signed by the Collector Of Land Revenue threatens enforcement action if the farmers do not remove structure, cultivation and other items that are encroaching on the State land by March 20 (Tuesday).

Since the notices were served on March 6, the informal patchwork of farms has become widely publicized and has divided opinion in land-scarce Singapore, where around 80% of residents live in blocks of flats built by the government and have no land of their own. The SLA said in a statement provided to The Wall Street Journal that there are currently no immediate plans for the site but individuals or groups of them cannot simply lay claim on State land for their private use. Since leaving the encroachment notices at the farms, the authority has said it will seek the views of grassroots organizations and government agencies on whether the land can be used by the community in some form, and a local member of parliament has offered to mediate. With the deadline looming, only a handful of residents have come forward to initiate discussions, and the fate of the farms remains unclear. However, many residents believe its hard to see how any outcome which drives green-fingered residents away from the small tract of forest will benefit the majority of people in the area. Many commentators on social media have expressed dismay that a seemingly harmless activity such as growing fruit and vegetables should draw the threat of legal action from the state, though others have said that the farms are dirty and should be cleared, and that the land should be opened up to all. Either way, the incident has highlighted the difficulties which arise from residents pursuing seemingly innocuous activities, such as growing food

on unused land, in a country where some 41,000 hectares of land, or about 58% of the island-states total area, are state-owned. Urban sprawl and rapid population growth has eaten into much of the remaining green space in Singapore and residents have become increasingly vocal and organized in their efforts to conserve what is left. A Chinese cemetery in Bukit Brown threatened by road construction is one such case where campaigners are urging that the government focus on boosting access to greenery to improve residents quality of life. In the farmers case at Clementi, many residents believe that if there is unused land available, smallscale food cultivation by residents would surely be a good use for it, although with some controls over potentially harmful practices such as burning foliage. Singapore long ago paved over most of its farm land, and these days, only a handful of working farms are still in operation, mainly in northwestern Singapore near the border with Malaysia. In past years Singapore authorities have encouraged some residents to grow their own fruits and vegetables to help improve food security in the city-state, which has to import most of its foodstuffs. Urban food gardening per se is an excellent use of land, says Bhavani Prakash, the Singapore-based founder of Eco Walk the Talk, an environmental advocacy group. However, I do agree that it does have to be properly managed by the community. This episode shows that there have to be proper guidelines for community gardens in Singapore, but

of course, not in a way that constricts the freedom and creativity of gardeners, she says. Ms. Prakash adds that in the long run, government agencies like the SLA, Urban Redevelopment Authority and National Parks Board should work together to encourage urban food gardening, and educate the public on best practices, such as composting bio-mass instead of burning it. Such a multilateral approach to the farms at Clementi seems likely to be the only way for the farmers there to continue to work the land. In this regard, there is precedent. A Community In Bloom program was launched by the National Parks Board in 2005 to help residents, students and workers in Singapore to set up and sustain community gardening projects. Ng Cheow Kheng, Deputy Director of Horticulture and Community Gardening at the National Parks Board oversees a team of six working on the program. He says that there are now 480 groups of community gardeners under the scheme, with projects ranging from roadside flower beds to large mixed-use plots, in both private and public housing areas. Mr. Ng says that through the use of renewable Temporary Occupation Licenses and with community leaders liaising with authorities, spare land can be transformed into gardening havens. He says such government involvement is an option at Clementi that could keep the soil being turned.

Its not so much about control, its not a question of legality of illegality, its really a question of organization, about people taking charge, he says. We help them with guides, training materials and choice of plants, we help them with whatever they need for gardening, and we make sure there is no nuisance to other people. Whether a framework such as the Community in Bloom program can be adopted at Clementi, though, remains to be seen, since discussions on what to do there are only just beginning. On Saturday, a group of men were burning incense papers and lighting joss sticks at the shrines in the heart of the complex of farm plots, as they removed artifacts and objects in preparation for the structures to be cleared. We just pray and give back, pray and give back, said one of the men from the community who uses the site and asked to be called AK Wong. He said the government was entitled to take back the land; it cant be helped lah. What to do? he shrugged.
http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2012/03/20/singapore-considering-giving-communityfarm-the-boot/