Dudutech

Dudutech was founded in 2001 to develop biological pest control products for Homegrown's fresh flower and vegetable business. Dudutech's mandate was to develop full integrated pest management programs to cover all Homegrown's crops. This was to reduce pesticide use and pesticide residues, to address the social and environmental issues surrounding pesticide use, to break pesticide resistance cycles in the crops and to promote long term sustainability. Dudutech pioneered Integrated Crop Management in Kenya. In 2001, there was very little legislation to deal with biological pest control products, and Dudutech worked closely with various government and donor bodies in order to develop appropriate procedures and protocols to be the first to bring biological pest control products to the Kenyan market. Since then Dudutech has grown in leaps and bounds and is a leading bio-pesticide producer and distributor, and a referral institute for Integrated Crop Management (ICM) in Africa. Dudutech employs over 230 people, all Kenyan. Dudutech has three production sites, 14 ha of outdoor insect production, two dedicated indoor insectaries, and state of the art fungus and nematode production facilities. The outdoor insect production sites are based around the equator with year-round growing conditions. Dudutech now supplies 17 biological control products, with more in the pipeline. Recognising the importance of training for successful Integrated Crop Management, Dudutech also has a NITA registered training department, that is peer-reviewed by Kenya Agricultural Research Institute. Dudutech supplies into horticulture, out-grower schemes, large scale agriculture, grain and cereal production, tea, coffee and forestry in East Africa, in addition to exporting to South Africa and Europe Since September 2011, Dudutech became a division of Finlays Horticulture (K) Ltd, benefitting from the larger company structure, expertise and logistics.