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The Straits Times, 6 Aug 05 Passion, and fear, help his career to bloom Outgoing AVA chief warns: Not enough spent on agriculture research, more is needed to secure food supply By Chang Ai-Lien SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT SINGAPORE'S chief farmer has warned that the current lack of investment in agricultural research could jeopardise the country's future food supplies. Dr Ngiam Tong Tau, who is stepping down as chief executive officer of the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) after 21 years in the post, said his successor still faces an uphill battle. In his final interview as AVA chief, Dr Ngiam said that research in agriculture should not play second fiddle to the current hot field of biomedical sciences. 'Research funding for agri-biotechnology is quite limited now, yet this is a critical area if we are to influence food production and food safety in Singapore and the region,' he told The Straits Times. Compared to the amount being funnelled into biomedical research here, the $25 million AVA has received to do collaborative research in agri-biotech over the next five years is inadequate. Such research can be used to develop fast tests to detect bird flu, for example. 'I do not see a divide between agri-biotechnology and the biomedical sciences. Both use the same technologies and both can contribute to each other. 'We could do much more if funding was increased,' said Dr Ngiam, who over his 36-year career as an AVA vet and administrator has championed the development of local high-tech farms. A Colombo Plan scholar who has been with the AVA his entire career, Dr Ngiam's achievements include putting in place systems to provide safe, adequate food for Singapore, taking care of animal and plant health, and protecting the country from animal diseases like rabies and bird flu. His work has been fuelled by two emotions: passion and fear. 'Farming is my passion, I have great respect for farmers,' he said. The fear first struck him about 20 years ago, when Dr Ngiam read an article on how the rich of ancient Rome were slowly poisoned by the lead pipes they used to carry water into their homes. Poor Romans were unaffected, because they couldn't afford the pipes. 'Similarly, in Singapore, there's this mentality that while we produce only about 10 per cent of our food, we can afford to buy the rest. 'However, if the importer's food is contaminated, there will be serious health problems. 'This is my greatest fear.' Driven by this historical lesson, Dr Ngiam doubled efforts to establish an efficient inspection structure to ensure that the authorities could detect and react quickly to any outbreak of animal disease or contamination of food supply. This safety net was breached only once, when the Nipah virus hit Malaysian pigs six years ago and an abattoir worker here died. 'We learnt from this tragedy that disease prevention must be 100 per cent and any weakness can lead to disaster.' In the Nipah case, traders had cheated by claiming their pigs were from approved farms, when in fact they were selling animals from other farms as well. In response, the AVA developed a detailed system with their Malaysian counterparts that tracked produce right from the farm until it arrives in Singapore. 'We're well aware that we can't control diseases in Singapore alone. 'We need to have strategic alliances with our food supply sources,' he said. Dr Ngiam, who retains his positions as an AVA board member and chairman of Singapore's Genetic Modification Advisory Committee, has been given many awards over the years for his service, including the Public Administration Medal (Gold). AVA staff call their soft-spoken boss a true gentleman, who has never been known to lose his temper or raise his voice. Dr Ngiam speaks just as highly of his staff. 'I have been very blessed to have such a good team over all these years. 'They have never failed me.' He steps down on Wednesday, his 62nd birthday, and will be succeeded by his old friend Dr Chua Sin Bin, AVA's deputy CEO, who has been his colleague for more than 30 years. Dr Chua, 58, said his biggest challenge will be to keep Singapore free of emerging diseases, create a larger pool of professionals in the field and increase the country's research capabilities. 'We will continue to be on the look-out for new, emerging threats beyond the horizon. 'These disease organisms are living things which continue to mutate and adapt and we have to at least keep pace or preferably keep one step ahead of them,' he said. Emotions driving a 36-year career 'Farming is my passion, I have great respect for farmers.' 'In Singapore, there's this mentality that while we produce only about 10 per cent of our food, we can afford to buy the rest. However, if the importer's food is contaminated, there will be serious health problems. This is my greatest fear.' Securing S'pore's food supplies 'It is not an exaggeration when I refer to him as one of our most important national resources in the mission of AVA to provide safe and resilient food supplies to Singapore. 'The world, especially Asia, has witnessed several food- and animal-borne infections and diseases in the last few years; and, it is a testament of Dr Ngiam and his organisation's work that Singapore emerged relatively unscathed.' AVA CHAIRMAN KOH POH TIONG, who has worked with Dr Ngiam for five years 'MND and AVA would like to express our deep appreciation to Dr Ngiam for his commitment and outstanding contributions in steering AVA to successfully fulfil its mission of ensuring a resilient supply of safe food, safeguarding the health of animals and plants, and facilitating agri-trade for Singapore.' The Straits Times, 6 Aug 05 Want to keep food supply safe? S'pore needs its own land overseas TEN years ago, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) lost a chance to buy a piece of farmland in Australia two-thirds the size of Singapore. As a result, Singapore missed a valuable opportunity to triple food production to meet its needs. Whether it's that Australian farmland (sold eventually to a religious group for A$70 million because local investors were uninterested) or the sweet grasslands used to fatten cattle in Argentina (which was also considered), Singapore needs to secure its own land overseas, said outgoing AVA chief Ngiam Tong Tau. This will allow the country to get a firm grip on producing its own food, to make sure it's safe, he said. While the foundations have been laid to make sure the overseas food supply is safe, this effort is an uphill battle. As more and more chemicals, drugs and antibiotics are used in food production and processing, it will be impossible for lab tests to keep track of everything. 'The best situation would be if we own the land, then we have total control over the production methods. And in times of shortage, we'll be first in line,' he said. 'The problem is the AVA is a regulator and cannot be seen investing in farms. We don't have any offshore parcels of land yet, and this has to be addressed.' The widening of the food supply net began in the 1980s, following the shock announcement that pig farms would be phased out. 'We had been so successful by this point, we had enough pork for the entire country. It was a lesson that in a small country, we must pay attention to what is sustainable environmentally.' Now, Singapore's expertise in pig production has been farmed out to other countries. The farm in Indonesia's Pulau Bulan, for example, is the region's largest pork facility with 250,000 pigs. It provides Singapore with one-third of its pork requirement. The skills honed in generating safe, disease-free produce have also been used to create safe food sources in regional farms that provide Singapore with fresh eggs, poultry, fish and vegetables. While Singapore is not an agricultural nation, key research in areas such as fish and orchid production has reaped big rewards - achievements credited to Dr Ngiam, who pushed the idea of modern agrotechnology farms when the backyard industry seemed in its sunset years in the 1970s. Last year, annual exports of ornamental fish, for example, were $86 million, a 16 per cent annual rise. This volume is about one-quarter of the industry's world trade, maintaining Singapore's 50-year reign as the ornamental fish capital of the world. With cheaper producers from China and India nipping at its heels, the achievement would have been impossible without help from science. It has led to quality fish being produced, with selective breeding and disease prevention, as well as transport of live fish, improving by leaps and bounds. Inroads have also been made in food fish production, with DNA profiling to select high producers, and research to create cheap, high-quality feed for baby fish that normally rely on live food. Another green touch by Dr Ngiam: To give people a taste of life in old Singapore, 20 species of indigenous fruit trees were planted along roads lining the agrotech parks in areas such as Loyang, Mandai and Lim Chu Kang, to act as a conservatory of our genetic heritage. People are free to sample the ripe fruit such as mangosteen and duku langsat, so long as they don't break the branches. links Related articles on Singapore: general environmental issues |
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