Akan Datang HDB Farms Everywhere!

 Clementi Gothic - Just imagine a HDB farmer uncle and aunty with BLK 339 behind instead in the picture

Imagine that! HDB farm allowed after HDB farmers appealed! Oh Ah Chan had a farm, ee-arr eee-arrr ooooh.

Surprisingly, despite the law backing them, SLA decided to reach a compromise with the squatter farmers at Clementi, in the DIY farmland next to the canal. The state-squatter compromise is neither free or forever as there is a $60 rental per year and the farm can stay for another 3 years.

What happens after 3 years? Probably the land lease would go up and any infringement of the lease would be used as an excuse to kick the farmers out. The farmers are squatters - obvious to any taxpayer. Just coz state land is there and vacant, it is not a green light to start having green fingers there. Ahem. Just coz a girl sit down there with legs open, don't mean you take out your banana and plant your seed inside her. Must get her permission first. Not plant first then get permission later. LOL

Really, this SLA flexibility sets a precedent. Will wannabe farmers from Tampines (in the empty plots near Down Town East) to Telok Blangah (right at bottom of Mt Faber) decide to farm kangkong, bananas and papaya? If they do, you think SLA will allow? You can always try - take your SAF chungkol, and try planting a durian or a rambutan tree right downstairs the HDB block on a patch of grass next to the playground. Perhaps for a start to test whether neighbours sabo and report to SLA like what happened in Clementi, try planting pandan plants as easier.

So on one hand, SLA showed flexibility. People who benefited from this flexibility should be happy. Three cheers for SLA. On the other hand, SLA is going to show double standards soon when they ban other people from starting their own farms on state land. LOL cannot make anyone happy! Such is the comedy of government policy.

SINGAPORE: Clementi residents will soon have a community farm in their backyard.

The Singapore Land Authority said it's processing an application from the Bukit Timah Citizens Consultative Committee for a three-year Temporary Occupation Licence for a plot of State land at Clementi Avenue 4 for the farm.

The 1,250 square metre plot, previously occupied by illegal farmers, is where the community farm will be.

The land will be divided into 30 plots.

Eighteen individuals who had been working on the land had come forward to SLA before the April 3 deadline, and will now get a 32-square metre plot on which to grow their produce.

Priority for the other plots will be given to residents living in the area.

Users of the community farm will pay an annual maintenance fee of S$60 to defray costs.

Farmers will also get water supply and a temporary footpath will be constructed.

MP for Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, Sim Ann, who is also MP for the area, said: "Arising from feedback from the residents, we feel that this project can be integrated with a temporary footpath that links Block 305 all the way to the Ulu Pandan Park Connector, which is where many of our residents go for jogging and for walks. And I think this footpath, because it's integrated with the community garden, will also allow residents to access and to admire, the plants and the crops that the farmers are cultivating."