Singapore Vertical Farm Produces High-Yield Rice Indoors for the First Time, Using 95% Less Water

RiceFuture, a Singapore-based agritech startup, has achieved what agronomists long considered impractical: commercially viable rice cultivation in a vertical farm environment. The company's pilot facility in Tuas has produced rice yields of 8.5 tonnes per hectare equivalent — comparable to the best traditional paddy farms — while using 95 percent less water and zero pesticides.

Rice cultivation is one of the most water-intensive forms of agriculture, traditionally requiring flooded paddies and vast land areas. The crop also generates significant methane emissions from flooded fields. Growing rice indoors eliminates both problems while opening the possibility of rice production in water-scarce and land-limited regions.

“The company's pilot facility in Tuas has produced rice yields of 8.”

The breakthrough came from developing a proprietary aeroponic system specifically designed for rice — a cereal grain that has different growth requirements from the leafy greens typically grown in vertical farms. The system delivers nutrient-rich mist directly to rice roots in precisely controlled cycles, while LED lighting tuned to specific wavelengths optimizes photosynthesis at each growth stage.

CEO Dr. Mei Lin Tan explained that the key innovation was their discovery that rice doesn't actually need standing water to grow — the flooding in traditional paddies primarily serves to suppress weeds rather than feed the plants. By removing the need for flooding and precisely controlling nutrients, the vertical farm achieves faster growth cycles, producing a harvest every 90 days compared to the typical 120-150 days in traditional farming.

The economic analysis is promising. While production costs are currently about 40 percent higher than conventional rice, the company projects price parity within three years as the technology scales. For Singapore, which imports over 90 percent of its food, the ability to produce rice domestically has significant food security implications.

The Singapore government has invested S$50 million in RiceFuture as part of its "30 by 30" initiative to produce 30 percent of the nation's nutritional needs domestically by 2030. The company plans to license the technology to other land- and water-scarce nations.