Agriculture Productivity Fund Disbursements
Ministry of National DevelopmentSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the disbursements and oversight of the Agriculture Productivity Fund (APF) as raised by Mr Leon Perera. Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong noted that $0.69 million was disbursed in 2015, following $18 million under the previous Food Fund scheme. The highest funding goes toward high-technology production systems, with co-funding rates of 50% for basic upgrading, 70% for productivity, and 90% for research and development. Grant sizes are determined by project scale, aiming to help farmers boost yields through capability development and innovative production technologies. Performance is ensured by the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore through milestone tracking and post-implementation reviews of productivity deliverables.
Transcript
3 Mr Leon Perera asked the Minister for National Development (a) how much of the Agriculture Productivity Fund has been disbursed in each year since 2009; (b) what categories of projects have attracted the largest funding amounts; (c) what are the criteria for determining the size of the grants received; and (d) how does the Ministry ensure that these recipients perform as expected.
Mr Lawrence Wong: The Agriculture Productivity Fund (APF) was launched in end-2014 to help our farmers boost their yields and raise productivity. The APF co-funds initiatives such as farm capability development to support productivity improvements, and research and development (R&D) in innovative production technologies.
About $0.69 million was disbursed from APF in 2015. As the scheme is still new, we can expect higher take-up and greater disbursement of funds over the coming years. Before the introduction of the APF, there was a Food Fund scheme, which served a similar purpose, and which had disbursed about $18 million from 2009 to 2014.
Thus far, the projects receiving the highest APF funding have been those that involve the purchase of advanced, high-technology production systems. The size of the grants depends on the nature and scale of the project. Generally, farms can receive up to 50% co-funding for basic capability upgrading, up to 70% co-funding for productivity enhancements, and up to 90% co-funding for R&D projects, with varying quantums for the different farm types.
The Agri-food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) works closely with recipients to ensure successful project outcomes at key milestones during the project timeline. AVA also conducts Post-Implementation Reviews together with APF recipients upon project completion to ensure that productivity deliverables are met before final funding amounts are disbursed.