Food security is a growing global concern. Singapore, as an island city-state with little to no arable land, is almost completely dependent on other nations to feed its population of >5M. Additionally, 15% of the world’s 7.4-billion-person population currently lacks access to sufficient calories or micronutrients and is malnourished. The ability of traditional agricultural practices to meet the world’s growing nutritional demand (with the global population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050) is further threatened by climate and political instability as well as increased demand for energy and water. Novel methods and technologies for the efficient and sustainable production of foodstuffs are needed to ensure both Singapore, and global food security.

The Di sruptive and S ustainable T echnologies for A gricultural P recision (DiSTAP) program is developing a suite of novel analytical, genetic and biomaterial technologies that are f...