KiliMOL held a demonstration for the rice planting mechanization project in western Kenya

KiliMOL Ltd. (KiliMOL; Representative: Mikio Oyama; Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo) and Karasawa Agricultural Machinery Service Co., Ltd. (Karasawa Agricultural Machinery; President: Takeyuki Karasawa; Headquarters: Tomi City, Nagano Prefecture) held a demonstration in a project to export Japanese agricultural machinery and Japanese agricultural technology to the Republic of Kenya in the Ahero Irrigation Scheme in western Kenya.

（KILIMOLThe staff will demonstrate rice planting)

▼ Rice planting in Kenya is entirely 'manual'.

Rice cultivation in Kenya is becoming increasingly mechanized in processes such as harvesting and rice milling, but rice transplanting is still a manual process. This is one of the most time-consuming and expensive processes in rice cultivation, as it requires securing a labour force for rice planting and the inherent labour costs. The population of the African continent is expected to increase in the future, reaching around 2.5 billion by 2050. From the perspective of food supply and demand, there is a strong need for mechanization in agriculture.

▼ Exporting 'technology' as well as machinery

Rice transplanting with rice transplanters requires "rice seedlings grown in seedling boxes". In other words, mechanization cannot be realized without "seedling technology".

In Japan, various types of soil are available for seedlings, but in Kenya soil suitable for box-grown seedlings is not available, so it is necessary to start from the soil preparation stage.

By adapting management of soil preparation to local conditions, such as watering after sowing, the seedlings were successfully raised and it was found that Japanese seed raising techniques are also applicable to conditions in Kenya.

▼ Effectiveness of rice transplanters

In the case of conventional manual work, it takes about seven hours for a team of 16 people to transplant one acre of rice, but in this demonstration, the work was completed with three machines in three hours by a team of three people, including hands-on instruction time, a reduction of about 76% in time needed. The effectiveness of the rice transplanter in Kenya is attracting attention locally, and those who actually used the machine and the 31 demonstration participants in total said they were impressed by the ease of use and high performance of the machine, which allows rice transplanting while walking.

In the future, we intend to further promote the use of rice transplanters by comparing the growth and yield of rice plants with those planted by hand.

(Left: immediately after seeding, centre: germination, right: seedlings grown to 12-13 cm)

(Rice transplanter exported from Japan)

[MOL Group 5 Sustainability Issues]
MOL Group will contribute to realizing a sustainable society by promoting responses to sustainability issues, which are identified as social issues that must be addressed with priority through its businesses.

We anticipate this initiative to contribute especially to the realization of "Human & Community - Contributing to the growth and development of people and communities-".

[About Karasawa Agricultural Machinery Service Co., Ltd.]

The company was founded to provide agricultural machinery repair services. While its main businesses are sales, repair, and restoration of agricultural machinery, it operates internet businesses such as website production, marketing, and consulting services. In addition, it operates the agricultural machinery distribution platform "noukinavi.com," bringing together more than 300 agricultural machinery dealers all over Japan, and posting a cumulative transaction volume of more than ¥1.8 billion. The company is developing a pioneering agriculture-related business under the concept "Agriculture x IT." In February 2021, it raised ¥1.8 billion, including third-party allotments and loan agreements, from several financial institutions including The Hachijuni Bank, Ltd., Hachijuni Capital Co., Ltd., The Gunma Bank, Ltd., and SMBC Group, further accelerating its corporate growth.

· Trade name: Karasawa Agricultural Machinery Service Co., Ltd.

· President: Takeyuki Karasawa

· Address of headquarters: 846-1 Kurakake, Tomi City, Nagano Prefecture

· Business: Agricultural machinery marketplace “Kokinavi” business,

Face-to-face sales, repair, and rental business of agricultural machinery, Website production/website consulting business

· Karasawa Agricultural Machinery service website: https://www.karasawanouki.co.jp/

· Agricultural machinery marketplace “Nokinavi”: https://www.noukinavi.com/

【About KILIMOL]

Established on 25 May, 2021, through the MOL Incubation Bridge program as an agricultural machinery sales and export company using a cross-border e-commerce website. The name is derived from kilimo, the Swahili word for "agriculture," and "MOL." Currently it focuses on exploring demand in Keyna, transporting agricultural machinery via MOL car carriers, and then trucking it to Kenya. KiliMOL aims to expand business domains not limited to the agricultural export business in Africa by strengthening MOL Group network activities in Kenya and other African countries.

· Trade name: KiliMOL

· President: Mikio Oyama

· Address of headquarters: 2-1-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo

· Business: Agricultural machinery sales and exports using a cross-border e-commerce website

· Website: https://kilimol.net/en

For further information, please contact:

KiliMOL Ltd.
Mikio Oyama (Managing Director)
E-mail: [email protected]