Sustainability Powers Kenya FLOWER FARMS Operations
Keen on growing top-quality flowers while taking care of the environment, Kenya flower farms have invested in sustainable business practices across the supply chain in what has earned Kenya a name and admiration globally as home of sustainably grown flowers.
From investment in solar energy, water harvesting and innovations that fight pests and diseases without harming nature, flower farms have invested in these technologies as a way of responding to market demands that dictate focus on planet and people before profits.
The trendsetter
Thika-based Simbi Roses has been a trendsetter in sustainable farm management practices having embraced elaborate interventions across water conservation, clean energy, integrated pest management systems and commitment to its staff and community.
It has installed a 150-kilowatt ground-mounted solar system that consists of 454 panels and five inverters as part of its commitments to clean energy and cutting down on electricity cost. It is estimated that the system has helped the farm cut carbon emissions by up to 144 tonnes each year. The solar plant powers major operations from the offices, main pumping station for fertigation, spraying and irrigation and the computerized greenhouses that regulate weather conditions digitally.
To reduce reliance on fossil fuels, the farm runs an Anaerobic Digestor site for biogas production, the first of its kind in the country, where waste from greenhouses and packhouses once shredded is used to produce biogas that fuel the pumps.
To ensure judicious use of water, the firm has adopted fertigation, drip irrigation and hydroponics technology that have tamed water consumption by up to 40 per cent while reducing the cost of fertilizer. On the other hand, Simbi Roses has invested in a detailed water harvesting system with water tapped from the farm’s 33 greenhouses and directed to reservoirs for future use.
To further bolster good agricultural practices, the flower farm has also invested in an array of Integrated Pest Management innovations from pheromone traps to sticky boards that ensure a responsible and balanced pest control approach to tackling pests, diseases and other flower threats. Such huge investments have earned the farm globally acclaimed accreditations among them LEAF Linking Environment And Farming (LEAF), Fairtrade, Mileu Programma Sierteelt (MPS).
“Responsible and sustainable flower growing is a labour of love. It is a commitment we make every day and we have to follow it across all farming operations from the greenhouses to the packhouses. We have to ensure that even as we tend to these roses, we are also protecting the environment and our workers. The devotion to people and planet is what drives our business,” said George Simiyu the Quality Assurance Manager at Simbi Roses.
For Bloomingdale Roses Kenya Ltd, a flower farm at the slopes of Mount Kenya, its major sustainable practice has been rain water harvesting to water flowers because the cost of borehole drilling and set up is quite high. The farm taps water from all greenhouse gutters. According to the company, the advantage with rainwater is that one does not have to acidify it since it is like mineral water so they are able to send it to the greenhouses right away. The farm has also dug numerous water dams for collecting rain water as opposed to one big dam. This is to avoid risks as has been witnessed in certain farms and with smaller dams they are able to collect more water per surface area.
The farm uses mulch films in our greenhouses to protect flowers from pests and diseases while maintaining the highest level of hygiene which helps produce healthy and consistent flowers.
“Sustainability is a very integral part of our business. This has to do with the way we grow our flowers. For example, our medium for flower growing is soil. We produce organic matter for the soil within the farm through recycling. We also do a lot of water conservation; we have lagoons and dams, we harvest rainwater and do not take pump any water from the nearby river.
We heavily rely on IPM in controlling pests in order to as a way of minimizing pesticide use and reduce on carbon emission. Our greenhouses use natural light. We have invested in solar energy. We get our daytime energy to power our operations from our solar system,” said Christine Shikuku Human Resource and Environment Manager at Tambuzi Flower Farm that is located between Nyeri and Laikipa counties.
Bigot Flowers Kenya, a scion of the France flower powerhouse Groupe Bigot Fleurs has modified greenhouses that have led to reduced pests and diseases hence bringing down the cost of chemicals.
There is a centralized spray system that has reduced chemical quantities significantly. The farm also has an 1-ligh-tech fertigation machine that has reduced fertilizer usages.
The company has introduced use integrated pest management and produces phytoseilus in the farm leading to less use of chemicals. It also rears cows and sheep in the farm while using cow dung and sheep waste.
At PJ Dave Flora, one of the five offshoots of the family-owned business PJ Dave Group, hydroponic technology is used to grow flowers while using pumice and soil as the main growing media. It also uses a water purification process dubbed reverse osmosis to remove excess salt from borehole water. To tame pests and diseases PJ Dave Flora has courted both chemical and biological solutions through the Integrated Pest Management model.
With the cost of energy eating up a lion share of the company’s revenue, the flower farm in 2018 installed a 360 kilowatts solar power plant, one of the largest in the Kenyan floriculture industry, which services the entire operations of the farm.
