Syngenta East Africa Kicks off three-year partnership with Solidaridad

During a breakfast meeting, the Syngenta team kicked off a three-year partnership on the Horticulture for Growth Project with Solidaridad. This partnership is part of Syngenta's sustainable operations plans as part of our Good Growth Plan through collaboration to empower farmers with Solidaridad.

The Horticulture for Growth project's primary purpose is to promote horticulture enterprises in Kenya. The overall objective is to improve livelihoods (food security and income), resilience and business case development of 30,000 horticulture smallholder farming households in three years. The project will be in seven counties across Kenya that is: Kirinyaga, Makueni, Laikipia, Bomet, Elgeyo Marakwet, Nakuru and Nyandarua. 

Stephen Kithuka, Head of Programs Solidaridad East and Central Africa, highlighted that "Although this is the 8th year of partnerships with Syngenta, this project will create ample opportunity to provide farmers access to technology. This support will also include market access, smart digital agriculture, safe use which in the end empowers the farmer."

The project's main objective is to train 30,000 farmers in the seven counties to increase their adaptive capacity, yield, and improve their safe use practices. The project will assist in training on improved technology adoption (crop protection and hybrid seeds), part of our Good Growth Plan objectives. The project's other objective is to improve access to affordable financing packages for smallholder farmers in Kenya and improve farmer financial literacy- target to finance 2,000 farmers in 2 years. The empowerment will allow farmers more access to Syngenta products, increasing our business impact across the country. 

At the Project kick-off, Caroline Gichimu, Marketing Manager East Africa, emphasized that this project is an excellent opportunity for us as Syngenta and Solidaridad to work together to improve farmers' livelihoods. She highlighted that this project allows us to continuously see the positive results of partnering for impact by changing farmers' lives.