Peter A Coclanis Evaluates Singapore's Water and Food Security Strategies
Peter A Coclanis argues that while Singapore has successfully secured its water supply through long-term planning and technological innovation, its ambitious '30 by 30' food production goal has proven overly ambitious. The administration announced that Singapore aims to produce 30 per cent of its food consumption by 2030, a target that Coclanis suggests may be less efficient than leveraging the nation's comparative advantages in trade and logistics. Singapore has successfully diversified its water sources, moving toward a reliance on reclaimed and desalinated water. In contrast, the '30 by 30' plan for agriculture faced challenges due to high costs and consumer indifference. By late 2025, the administration eased away from the '30 by 30' rhetoric, setting more modest targets for home-grown protein and fiber. Coclanis concludes that for a wealthy nation like Singapore, focusing on supply-chain efficiency and reducing food waste is more practical than pursuing arbitrary metrics for domestic production, as the country remains well-positioned to import high-quality goods from the surrounding rice-surplus region of Southeast Asia.