GLOBAL AGRICULTURE FIRM SYNGENTA LAUNCHES CROP PROTECTION CENTRE IN KENYA

NAIROBI - A leading agriculture company Syngenta has launched a crop protection centre in Kiambu County, the first of its kind in Kenya to boost food production among farmers.

According to Head of Crop Protection Development Africa and Middle East Albrecht Michel, the centre will offer farmers solutions that have been tried and tested under local conditions through best agronomical practices.

The Crop Protection Development Knowledge Centre is a learning and training centre that will bring together the cutting-edge technologies needed by our farmers.

It is a demonstration site where we showcase the performance of our innovative solutions in seed, Seed care and crop protection and is open to the public, researchers, farmers, students and government officials to share knowledge on how we can increase our farming productivity and food quality as we navigate an increasingly complex world,” said Michel.

At the same time, the official said that farmers will not be charged anything while visiting the centre.

“We want the farmers to access the best agricultural practices and convert the knowledge to feed the nation,” he said Syngenta Business Area Head and Managing Director East Africa Fredrick Otieno said the centre will help local farmers cope with climate change as they will be able to adopt new technologies that are emerging like fall armyworms that are becoming a headache to farmers among others.

“As problems face farmers, the knowledge they have is not sufficient to have them move into the future with confidence to increase their yield.

We have also seen significant incidences of climate change leading to farmers seeking coping mechanisms like changing their cropping patterns and technologies to fight challenges like fall armyworms that are increasingly becoming a bigger problem,” said Otieno.

“This centre in Kiambu will test our technologies under local conditions where the farmers can see real-life examples of how best agricultural practices are undertaken and see the results and adopt the new knowledge and become more resilient with increasing climatic challenges facing many farmers in Kenya,” said Otieno. – DAILY NATION, Kenya.