Farm-Tech Expo Kenya, a one-stop-shop for Kenyan farmers to find all services needed to effectively manage a modern agricultural operation with value additions has been launched in Naivasha and designed to empower, inform and transition Kenya’s agri-value chain onto the 21st century highway.
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The expo will gather key stakeholders, retailers, agents, service providers from across the entire agri value chain and farmers from small to commercial scale into one arena to provide a unique outdoor and interactive buying platform for all agriculture professionals, from live crop trials and machinery demonstrations to free-to-attend training workshops.
“We can’t wait to show the agri sector in Kenya what we managed to achieve with Agritech Expo Zambia during the last five years,” says Dominique de Lauwere, the event director of the inaugural Farm-Tech Expo Kenya, outdoor farming expo that is taking place at the host partner KALRO in Naivasha from 12-13 September.
“We will have the same winning combination of technology, learning and networking at Farm-Tech Expo Kenya – this has been the key to the success of Agritech Expo Zambia and helped it become a firm favourite on the regional agri calendar,” says Dominique.
Phenomenal success
The event organisers are Spintelligent, the multi-award-winning Cape Town-based organiser of trade exhibitions and conferences across the continent. Agritech Expo Zambia is one of its flagship events and has won several AAXO ROAR awards, including twice for Best Africa Bound Trade & Consumer Exhibition in the 12000+ sqm category.
In partnership with the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) and GART, Agritech Expo Zambia has been a phenomenal success with consistent attendance of, on average, 18,000 visitors (farmers of all scales) per year, 270 local and international exhibitors including several country pavilions and 150 members of the media. Zambian President Edgar Lungu is a regular VIP guest at the event.
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Improving yields
Many of the longstanding partners of the Zambian event have already signed up to be in Naivasha in September, including CASE, Toyota, John Deere, SAME, BASF, Chief Industries, Lindsay Africa, FarmCo, Mascor, Massey Ferguson, QBS, E.A.Seed, Trimble and Yara. The first country pavilion to be confirmed so far is from Poland and China are busy concluding their country pavilion.
“Kenya is a regional hub for East Africa and is therefore strategically very important for the region,” says Ian Allen, General Manager – Agri Mechanisation Department at CASE and Toyota Tsusho East Africa Ltd. (TTEA), gold sponsors at the inaugural Farm-Tech Expo Kenya, adding: “Food production is one of the major pillars identified, which the government will focus on in the next five years.”
He continues: “We are inspired to be partners in developing agri mechanisation in the region in order to produce more food for a growing population. We need to improve yield and production from less available land through good mechanisation suited for our customers.”
According to CASE’s Ian Allen: “A highlight for us in the last 12 months is the big breakthrough we made into the very competitive sugar belt sector. We also had continuous penetration into the high HP and harvesting sectors. We are also in the process of expanding our network to Nakuru which is located in the heart of the agricultural region in the country.”
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At Farm-Tech Expo Kenya, Allen states: “Case IH will have a wide range of equipment where customers can come and see and drive machines fitted with the latest technology suited for all types of farming including precision farming.”
Multi-award winning event organisers
Farm-Tech Expo Kenya is organised by Spintelligent, a multi-award-winning Cape Town-based exhibition and conference producer across the continent in the infrastructure, real estate, energy, mining, agriculture and education sectors. Other well-known events by Spintelligent include African Utility Week, Future Energy East Africa, Future Energy Nigeria, Agritech Expo Zambia, Kenya Mining Forum, Nigeria Mining Week and DRC Mining Week. Spintelligent is part of the UK-based Clarion Events Group.