We hosted 30 avocado farmers from all over Kenya for an agri-bus AvoTour on 7th August 2020.
Our first stop was at Amiran Kenya where Mr. Brian Gesimba showed us around their facility and various solutions. Some farmers even dubbed it as a “one-stop shop” for all of agricultural needs. We saw Amiran’s agricultural basket of products which included an irrigation system tailor-made for the small farmer, fertilizers, home biogas system, and water measuring technologies.
After that, we went to Kandia Fresh Produce Suppliers, a company using Eshet Eilon‘s advanced grading and packing technology. Mr. Nicky Abayo together with Kandia staff took as through the facility. We saw how Eshet Eilon’s post-harvest technology saves hours every day. It sorts, weighs, grades and packs avocados with a touch of a button. This amazing system grades products by size, weight, color and visual defects, combining an advanced optical system with weighting features – all at a high speed.
We stopped over for lunch on our way to Soloplant, a well renowned propagator of avocado that has been using Israel technology. We met Ms. Anna Nosareva, Mr. Vikash Singh and Ms. Jemimah Waweru who were gracious enough to take us around their nursery. Soloplant partnered with Amiran Kenya who have a lot of experience in Israel agribusiness; for consultancy services as well as providing them with farm inputs. We saw how Soloplant’s avocado propagation has been done with the utmost attention to every detail in plant development process. Moreover, there were about 150,000 seedlings in their propagation unit. The farmers had a chance to ask questions and learn some of the dos and don’ts of avocado farming.
Finally, we went to our last tour destination, Dhibiti Farm by VegPro. We were amazed by their vast avocado plantation of 65 hectares. Mr. Jayesh Yadav and staff took us around their amazing farm. We were impressed by their healthy plantation which they attributed to having done their due diligence from the beginning and following the best agronomic practices. Similarly, the farmers asked questions about their experience with Israeli agro-tech and learned a lot.
Conclusion
To the farmers who attended the tour due their interest in Israeli Agro-tech, the Israeli Trade and Economic Mission in Nairobi, the Avocado Society of Kenya and ADC wish to thank you for gracing our event.
