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Singapore Farms

Despites being a modern city, Singapore still has within its limited land space, areas dedicated to farms for the growing of vegetables and rearing of livestock to contribute to a certain percentage of its food needs.

Many of these farms are located in Kranji and a number of these farms, mostly well-established farms have banded together to inject vibrancy and fun of farming by forming a group called ‘Kranj Countryside’. Some of the ways this group has explored to reach out to more Singaporeans include the setting up of the Kranji Countryside website, the establishment of shuttle services from Kranji MRT station to farms and as well as the construction of farm resorts for Singaporeans who wish to experience farmland living.

I am not a regular visitor to these farms though I love all things green and rural. I am a regular visitor to the parks in Singapore but I seldom go to farms for one reason: the farms in Kranji are difficult to access via public transport. Though you may argue that there is a bus 925 from Kranji and the Kranji Express, you may want to try waiting for them! Recently, my wife and I have tried waiting for 1.5 hours for Kranji Express just to get from one farm to another! It does not help though the express service costs $2 for a round trip to 7 or 8 farms, I mean with a waiting interval of 1.5 hours, how many such farms can you visit? For my wife and I, the answer is one as we came to visit the farms around 2pm recently. Of course, we do not know the shuttle intervals initially else we would have thought of alternative transport.

Being in a remote (‘ulu’) place like Kranji without your own transport like car, one will have to contend with waiting and waiting for either bus 925 or Kranji Express. One can call a taxi also provided the driver does not mind to pick you up in this far-flung location. Do not think of hailing a cab, there is not a single taxi in sight there.

If I have painted a somewhat discouraging picture of visiting farms in Kranji, I have to apologize that I do not meant to do so. I have just wanted to reinforce the message that you may want to think of planning your transport and access there else you will spend lots of time waiting for public buses and the shuttle.

The farms in Kranji make for a worthwhile visit if you are not there before as you would see how vegetables are grown and harvested as well as how fireflies, frogs and goats are farmed. AVA has now forbid the feeding, touching and being in close proximity of the goats at Hay’s Dairy by visitors thus I was very sad to learn that in my second visit to the farms as a part of the appeal in visiting the farms is now gone. It seems that there is now no place at all to feel goats in Singapore!

To many Singaporeans, unless they go to the farms regularly to buy farm produce, many would not revisit the farms again for the second or third time in my opinion as there are not really many interesting things to see which will get refreshed upon subsequent trip. That may be the reason why the frequency of public buses to these farms are incredibly long as there are not many visitors.

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