MOL announced that KiliMOL Ltd., which was born out of the employee proposal system and is engaged in the business of exporting agricultural machinery to African countries, is launching “SDGs Business Validation Survey for Development of raising seedlings technology for use of rice transplanters and business development with rice transplanters in Kenya”, in cooperation with Karasawa Agricultural Machinery Service Co., Ltd. (President: Takeyuki Karasawa; Headquarters: Tomi City, Nagano Prefecture). The project was selected for the “SMEs/SDGs business support program,” funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

In collaboration with Kenyan government ministries and agencies, over the course of about one year after the start of the contract with JICA, KiliMOL and Karasawa Agricultural Machinery Service will conduct research and demonstration of optimal seedling cultivation methods, explore potential markets, customers, and partners, and present lectures on how to use rice transplanters. The goal is to promote the use of rice transplanters in Kenya, where mechanization of rice planting has lagged behind.

The Kenyan government is working to expand irrigation areas for rice cultivation, since the nation still relies on imports for about 80% of its consumption even as both consumption and domestic production are increasing. On the other hand, rice planting in Kenya today is done almost entirely by hand, so under the current situation, manual planting is not keeping up with the pace of its expansion. In addition, uneven spacing between rows makes weeding inefficient, and addressing these factors, which lead to higher production costs, so mechanization of rice planting has the potential to realize significant productivity gains.

KiliMOL has already exported used riding and walking rice transplanters from Japan to the region and is providing local technical assistance in cooperation with Karasawa Agricultural Machinery Service. KiliMOL aims to promote the widespread use of rice transplanters to increase agricultural productivity and ultimately contribute to the reduction of hunger and poverty, by developing a large-scale seedling nursery environment in a way that can be adopted locally through this support project.