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If You Love Life You Will Love Luna

After climbing one great hill, one only realizes that there are many more mountans to climb. This old adage attributed to one of African great rings true in agrochemicals. The past few decades have seen the rise and spread of different diseases in greenhouse farming. One man has seen it all, Mr. Anthony Songoro, Crop Manager, Floriculture and Industrial Crops Bayer Crop Science a trained horticulturalist with both agrochemical and production experiences. Before joining Bayer Crop Science two years ago, he was a grower for seven years. Mr. Songoro prides himself with a wealth of experience in biologicals. To many he is a guru in the flower industry. Recently, Floriculture Magazine caught up with him after giving the key presentation in Luna Tranquility Launch and in a relaxed atmosphere, he gave an interesting interview, Excerpts.

 

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Founded in January 2013, Fresh From Source (FFS) is becoming a well-known young company in the flower industry. With our experienced team based in the Netherlands with representativesin Kenya, (Nairobi) and Zimbabwe (Harare), we are able to supply fresh flowers from Africa all over the world.

 

Objectives Fresh

From Source is part of the Dutch Flower Group family. The company was founded with the objective of meeting the growing demands of customers wishing to get closer to the source. With FFS the customer is able to create the shortest supply chain possible. This trend, combined with the demand to meet the specific needs of the customers, led to the start of FFS. We now can conclude that we made the right step, customers as well as suppliers are happy with the concept of FFS!

 

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By Henry Wainwright

Real IPM

An adult Amblyseius californicus attacking an adult two spotted spider mite.

If you asked a rose grower ten years ago what was their greatest pest problem they would immediately say red spider mite. A problem because of the challenge in controlling the pest and the cost, often more than 50% of the crop protection budget would be spent on spider mite control. However there has been a revolution in the strategies used and costs incurred for the control of mites in Kenyan roses. The new technologies involved are broadly three; the use of organosilicon sprays, the use of predatory mites and the application of biopesticides – insect killing fungi.

 

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IPM Strategies

To address an actual or perceived pest problem, one must first develop a strategy. An IPM strategy is a plan for management that uses a particular type of approach to address the pest problem. Tactics are the methods used to achieve the goals of your strategy. The strategy should try to embrace all three principles of IPM if possible. Upon discovering a pest in your cropping system, the IPM strategies that you may employ can be part of three possible responses:

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I clearly remember the advice given to me when I was toying with the idea of becoming a scribe. “Don’t take up journalism as your career if your sole aim of life is to make money. In scribing you only earn a name but not money,” my mentor told me. He Quoted Somerset Maughan and said, “Money is the sixth sense without which we cannot enjoy the other five to the full! Even allowing for the sort of ostentatious life, anything in excess is just adding zeros to one’s bank balance and gloating over bloated bank statements every month.

And not him alone but even the country’s education system took me far from scribing. And the gods of the highest education ensured I land into UON ( University of Nowhere) to format me into a tax collector. My own father supported them and cursed the gods’ of scribes quoting Jesus, he said. “Woe unto you scribes……………

After a year of locking myself in a room to cook figures, I sneaked into one of the late Wahome Mutahi’s (My Mentor) comedy shows and our worlds met again and this time he ensured I turned into a scribe.

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Germany is an important market and one of the biggest markest for flowers, but according to Rupert Fey of Beyond-Flora, a company that assists growers to enter German speaking markets, it is a difficult market to enter. “The Germans have a distinctive taste and above all, buying regional products is becoming increasingly popular,” he says.

 

Regional products

Like many other countries, the demand for regional produce is increasing. The slow foods movement trend, a locally grown movement that strives to preserve traditional and regional cuisine, is now also being adapted in the ornamental sector in Germany. “Currently, several labels, like ‘ich bin von hier’ and ‘Nordfreun.de’ are being used to show customers that the products are regionally grown,” says Fey. “Besides that, it is also being stimulated by the government and the public; according to them it is better to spend your money in the neighbourhood.”

 

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Rising cost of farm inputs in the country has seen some leading flower farms in the country rethink other innovative ways of cutting chemical based fertilizers cost in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way.

A leading rose grower in Kenya, has embraced a relatively new but simple system to operate composting technology known as Vermicomposting. This refers to the production of plant nutrient rich excreta of earthworms and decomposed matter.

Earthworms play a vital role in plant growth and it is quite possible to effect quick change over for sustainable agriculture by harnessing the brand new vermicompost technology to the soil. This vermicompost have enzymes, secretions of earthworms which stimulate growth and yield of crops and even develop resistance in crops receiving this spray. Also known as vermiwash, worm compost, vermicast, worm castings, worm humus or worm manure, vermicompost is similar to plain compost, except that it uses worms in addition to microbes and bacteria to turn organic waste into a nutrient-rich fertilizer.

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Most growers show a lot of enthusiasm when choosing cartons, sleeves or even refrigerated containers. However, little attention is generally given when choosing SFK, yet they are the first line of protection for the flowers. This has resulted in growers losing many stems which should have turned into revenue. This was revealed by research carried out recently by this periodical.

In Kenya, there is a wide range of SFK available to growers and exporters from different suppliers. However, the reasons for selecting a specific type of SFK is not always clear. Pack rates and cost efficiency seem to be prevailing motives according to our research. The outcome, however, is not always what would be best for the flowers.

 

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