Alisha

From the Great Rift Valley

Alisha is the brand name of the (Fontana group) Mau Flora Ltd. Farm and was established in 2013 in Turi, Molo area on the highlands overlooking the Great Rift Valley, Kenya, at an altitude of 2,400 meters, just north of Nakuru. The farm area is around 125ha and divided between rose greenhouses and a dairy farm. The Rose farm initially started with 15 ha and then expanded another 21ha, so as of August 2015 the farm has a total of 36ha greenhouses planted. During 2016 another 5ha will be added, meaning a total of 41ha.

Niche Varieties

The brand name for this farm is Alisha since this is the latest farm there are a lot of new and premium niche varieties on this farm. The marketing strategy is to target the high segment market through various wholesalers worldwide and supply the Dutch flower auction.

Environmental Awareness

Alisha, like the other farms in the group, follows the same awareness of environmental concerns and takes many steps to reduce the amount of water sourced from the ground and reduce the use of chemicals and fertilizers. A solar electricity generation unit is installed to generate at least 70 % of the power usage and there are around 400,000 M cube lined basins to store the water that they collect from the greenhouse roves. The use of hydroponics reduces the use of water and fertilizer and computerized drip irrigation, tensiometers, and suction tubes all contribute optimal irrigation and fertilizer to the plants. The use of IPM and biological/organic products is to reduce the use of chemicals in the ground and for pest and disease control. The dairy farm’s high-tech facility by-products such as the cow dung are used for manure for the roses and to feed the earthworms in the vermicomposting process.