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Young people are the future of the country, which means that they will be the ones shaping the future, impacting the community and country. They are able to contribute engery and idealism not just through urban gardening, but in other aspects too. I remebered that when i was in secondary 1, we did hydroponics, which is the process of growing plants without soil where we grew kang kong. We had to put shoot in the cotton wool, and afterwards, place them in the holes of styrofoam board. During the process of putting the shoot in the cotton wool, we had to make sure that the shoot was at the correct position, or else the shoot would not grow properly. Thus, this was slighty tedious, and from this I learnt that we can't just anyhow do things, and in whatever ways we can, we must put in our upmost effort, hard work in whatever we do to make sure . Thus i believe throught urban gardening, young people would be able to learn these skills. By experimenting with urbam gardening, young people would also take time off from their mobile,computer gadgets.

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With the growing numbers of young people experimenting with urban gardening, there are several benefits.
Firstly, young people can experiment urban gardening with the elderly they have at home, example their grandparents. This will then provide a platform for the young to forge a stronger bond with the elder generations, bridging the gap as well. Since it is very common for our grandparents to be the ones gardening, growing their own plants and flowers, it will be a good activity for young people to experiment urban gardening with their grandparents as well since their grandparents can share with them some tips and tricks on how to make their plants grow healthier. This also increases the interaction between the young and the elderly, which they would not have even interacted if they did not experiment on urban gardening.
Next, more young people experimenting on urban gardening will also help with the environment and our community. By having more young people experiment on urban gardening, they can help to grow more plants and at the same time learn more about different types of plants. This will enable them to realise how plants are actually very important to our environment, example how they provide humans with enough oxygen as they photosynthesis. This allows young people to be aware of how various human activities have impacted the earth and urban gardening will help to mitigate such negative impact. Learning urban gardening will also enable young people to be more caring towards their own plants and will shape them into a better person in our environment. Perhaps they might care more for other people, showing care to people in their community, just like how they are caring and gentle while treating their own plants.
Lastly, it is also beneficial for the young people themselves as they can get to pick up a new hobby. It is very common to have everyone's eyes to be stuck on their personal mobile devices, and even spending their leisure time looking through their various social media. By having more young people experimenting urban gardening, it will be more healthy for them to spend more time on gardening than using their mobile phones, spoiling their eyesight. Some young
people may also be overly stress due to the amount of workload they have from school, and experimenting on urban gardening can help them relax and clear their mind as well.  By picking up urban gardening as their hobby, they can spend their leisure time gardening, which is more useful than spending the whole day looking through their social media which they have limited things to learn form it.

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One major benefit that the younger generation is able to get more exposures to the outside world. As many of the teenagers nowadays like to lock themselves up in their bedroom and refuse to come out in different form of activities??, urban farming can help teenagers to get more involved to the outside world by spending time outside. Through knowing their environment, it will also be easier for them to broaden their concerns to other areas of the society.

Furthermore, as more young people engage in urban farming. Urban farming will have a faster growth rate in Singapore. The young people are the future supporting pillars of the country. Through taking up actions and getting involved in their communities, they can decide what kind of future does Singapore wants themselves.??

Last but least, teenagers are lively and full of energy. With their participation in urban farming, urban farming in Singapore will be able to be supported by more active citizens.

Feedback: Relevant and more focused on the group mentioned.

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There are quite a few of benefits for young people to experiment with urban gardening. Firstly, the process of experimenting is definitely helpful for them to develop better operational ability.?? Nowadays, young people do not normally have the chance to practice their ability to actually do something with their hands. For example, the students might know the procedures of urban gardening but they may find it difficult when they actually do it. But having to opportunity to try it out, they will have a greater appreciation of how urban gardening works. Living in an urban city, we rarely have opportunities to go out and do something involving nature. By experimenting with urban gardening, we will be able to have a close look at plants thus be able to appreciate where our food comes from. Young people are also able to contribute more to the community through their energy and idealism.

lack of relation towards the benefits of having young ppl to do the things.. why SPECIFICALLY young people?

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With more people experimenting with urban farming, they would firstly come to a realisation that they should appreciate things that are normally taken for granted such as food. Most young people would not know that it is hard to gather food harvest, but through experimenting with urban farming, they start to understand the importance of appreciating food. Secondly, young people could also possibly pick up urban farming as an interest. With that interest, it would further boost security in Singapore. Thirdly, as young people are generally more idealistic and creative, by having an interest in urban gardening, young people can impact a particular community better and their ideas would be easily sustained.

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By introducing young people to urban gardening, they will be better equipped with knowledge to tackle future problems, like lack of land space. In Singapore, it is especially important, since singapore is a little red dot with small land mass. Perhaps with these skills as a starter, young people would be able to innovate new and more efficient methods of growing food for the country.
It can also encourage young people to go out of the house more often, instead of living a sedentary lifestyle (good use of vocab) at home, playing computer games and using social media. This can benefit the youngster's well being, and nurture them to be patient and caring for the plants, which may take a long time to grow. Urban farming, like normal farming, takes up lots of commitment and discipline to care for the plants everyday.
Feedback: Benefits of young people taking an active role are a strength.

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Nowadays, many young people in Singapore live a comfortable life where they often do not need to worry about food shortage.  Urban gardening provides young people an opportunity to put themselves in the farmer’s shoes and understand that growing food is not an easy task. Through this, young people could be encouraged to reduce food wastage and be appreciative for having enough food to eat. This could in turn reduce the amount of food waste filling up landfill and incinerator, which could contribute to a cleaner environment.  When i was secondary 1, i had participated in urban gardening in my school. My classmates and I were tasked to grow spinach, and the process of growing it was tedious. We had to remember to water the plants and change the fertiliser everyday, as well as to transfer the plant to a bigger pot if it grows too big. I learnt that growing food requires patience, time commitment, and also hard work. If one does not put in efforts to look after the plant, it would start to wither and die. This activity made me understand that food is precious as it is often difficult to grow so much food, therefore I must not waste any food.

Another benefit is that money spent on food could be saved when more young people participate in urban farming. For example, if students help to contribute to urban farming in their school, the school food vendors could stop buying food from groceries shops and use the food grown in school instead. This allows them to save more money for themselves to spend. When lesser people buy food from grocery stores, more food from the grocery stores could be donated to the needies to prevent throwing away expired food and to allow the needies to have sufficient food to eat.

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What it is like being a 24-year-old female farmer in Singapore

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Singapore - When most graduates in Singapore think about a career, we can bet our last dollar "farmer" is probably the furthest thing on their mind. But for Amanda Oh, 24, farming was exactly what she wanted when she graduated last year from Nanyang Technological University, where she

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2 Discuss the benefits of more young people experimenting with urban gardening.

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2 Discuss the benefits of more young people experimenting with urban gardening.

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There could be more urban farms, rooftop gardens and solar panels sprouting up across Singapore, as city planners redouble efforts to make the city more green.

There are some 100ha of high-rise greenery - which refers to plants covering building exteriors - islandwide. This is equivalent to more than 100 football fields.

The target is to double this by 2030, set as part of the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint two years ago.

To get there, developers will be given more options to replace greenery lost at a site during the development process, announced the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) yesterday.

Now, they can do so only through landscaping options within the building or by creating sky terraces and gardens on rooftops. Going forward, new features such as urban farms and communal gardens on rooftops will contribute towards the landscape replacement requirements.

Said Second Minister for National Development Desmond Lee: "Such features have been gaining popularity in our urban landscape as many Singaporeans have a keen interest in farming and gardening."

Speaking at the opening ceremony of GreenUrbanScape Asia, a three-day conference on landscape and design, he said the Government had set the 200ha target to make the urban landscape more attractive and support richer urban biodiversity. He added that "an appreciation and love for greenery is now core to Singapore's national identity".

The enhancements aim to encourage landscaping on walls and roofs that not only beautifies buildings, but also provides visual relief to passers-by and cools the ambient temperature, said a URA statement.

The changes come under the Landscaping for Urban Spaces and High-Rises (Lush) programme, which was launched in 2009 to incentivise developers and building owners to integrate greenery.

Yesterday, Mr Lee, who is also Minister for Social and Family Development, cited a joint study by the National Parks Board (NParks) and the National University of Singapore, to illustrate how high-rise greenery has a part to play in housing wildlife.

The study looked at biodiversity in roof gardens here from May 2014 to December 2015, and recorded some 53 bird species and 57 butterfly species in over 30 study sites.

"This joint study suggests that with careful design planning, urban roof gardens can play host to a diverse range of wildlife, and help complement the equally important work of natural habitat conservation and enhancement," Mr Lee said.

According to the study, which is the first of its kind in Asia, roof gardens that attract the most wildlife are located below 50m in a building; have a larger planted area of more than 1,100 sq m; and have flower-and fruit-bearing plants .

"The study provided very strong evidence to give confidence to designers... to make more responsible, more informed (decisions on) roof gardens," said Mr Poh Choon Hock, a researcher at NParks' Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology.

As greener methods of using rooftop areas will require developers to relocate mechanical and electrical equipment, URA will sweeten the move by granting gross floor area exemptions for the space where the relocated equipment is placed in. These exemptions could represent significant cost savings for developers and building owners.

To standardise the assessment of these green plans for buildings, URA will also roll out a new Green Plot Ratio (GPR) framework as a requirement for developers, where denser greenery is required of buildings that see more intense use.

GPR, which will consider vertical greenery coverage, is an improvement over the current standard which takes only horizontal planted areas into consideration.

Today, there are 550 developments in the Lush scheme. Two out of three new residential developments so far have applied for at least one Lush incentive, while over half of new malls, offices and hotels have done the same, said URA.

The enhancements will encourage more developers to get on board, said GuocoLand Singapore group managing director Cheng Hsing Yao, 46. "I just hope we can strike a balance between the visual and the usability aspects of our greenery."
* Additional reporting by Raffaella Nathan Charles

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More rooftop gardens, urban farms planned

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There could be more urban farms, rooftop gardens and solar panels sprouting up across Singapore, as city planners redouble efforts to make the city more green. There are some 100ha of high-rise greenery - which refers to plants covering building exteriors - islandwide. This is equivalent to more than 100 football fields.