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Avocado farm sees 150% fruit increase shifting to weed and pepper pesticide

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By Francis Ndungu

An avocado farm has increased its fruits by 150 per cent and avoided its exports being rejected by abandoning chemicals for a pest-stinging organic mix of hot pepper and Mexican marigold weed.

Located in Laikipia, Marmanet Farm has kept off thrips, mites, and caterpillars that were sinking the farm increasing its hass avocado harvest from 20,000 to 50,000 pieces per season from one acre.

According to farm manager Patrick Njoroge, they adopted this all-natural mix which can also be used on other crops in 2024 after export avocados were rejected because the fruits still had too much chemical residue.

“Initially we used many types of chemicals for pest control, shifting to different chemicals when one stopped being effective. This however came to bite us in December 2022 when one tone of our hass avocados was barred from entering the European market because of having a high chemical residue,” Njoroge said.

To avoid these kinds of losses, they were forced to look for alternatives to chemicals.

“I scout our orchards every morning and I realised that the avocados we harvested from trees that were planted near ripe peppers had perfect skins and weren’t attacked by these pests,” he recounted. 

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Before Marmanet started using pepper and Mexican marigolds, many of their Hass avocados were not exportable because they had injuries on their surface caused by thrips or caterpillars.

Already familiar with the generational use of Mexican marigolds as organic pesticides by farmers from his background as an agronomist, Patrick had a lightbulb moment: Why not make a pepper, Mexican marigold solution to keep the pests off his fruits?

Together with a couple of farmworkers he first boiled the Mexican marigold leaves overnight and allowed them to cool slowly. They then ground the hot peppers to a fine powder. The pepper powder was then diluted in a litre of water and sieved to remove pepper residuals. 50ml of pepper solution was put in a spraying pump together with the 50ml of boiled Mexican marigold with the rest of the pump being filled with water. 

“We spray our crops early in the morning when it is cool and pests are still attached to the leaves of our crops due to the chilly condition. You should remember to target the lower side of the leaves. The pepper will burn the pests’ bodies while Mexican marigolds will repel them, clearing the farm of pests,” he explained.

This method of pest control which can also be used for other fruits and crops is cheap, easy, and affordable. It also helps in PH regulation. 

The pesticide can be sprayed together with other pesticides and foliar fertilisers.

Mexican marigolds are also not easy to get because they grow wildly on farms across Kenya.

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The hot pepper solution should not be used excessively since it can burn plants. The amount that is used can be adjusted gradually depending on the population of pests.

The more the pest the higher the rate of pepper solution. The stinging mix should be used frequently in farms with a large amount of pests to be effective.

“This natural pesticide has maximised our production of Hass avocados. We’ve gone from very low production from August 2024 because of the high level of pest infestations to today exporting the most fruits we ever have which are all perfect quality,” Patrick said.


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