The National Horticulture Taskforce on Wednesday launched Good Agricultural Practice Guides for avocado, beans and peas in pods for Kenyan farmers.
Taskforce chairman, Clement Tulezi said the guide is meant to address the challenges relating to commercial quality and the regulatory requirements.
"The guidelines outline the procedures to be adopted by various value chain actors in the beans, peas, and avocado value chains to ensure and assure compliance with both market and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) requirements at the national and international level," he said.
Tulezi said the guide aims to impart knowledge to the agricultural stakeholders on the good practices that it can adopt to enable the sector to produce and sell quality horticultural produce to the destination markets.
He said that the good agricultural guides have come at a critical moment in the horticultural sector which is currently facing major bottlenecks that need to be addressed to enable it to thrive.
He said the guides have been developed by the stakeholders to address the challenges relating to the commercial quality and the regulatory requirements for beans, peas and avocados.
"These challenges include compliance with sanitary and phytosanitary requirements i.e. presence of harmful organisms and maximum residue limits for pesticides, use of quality and true to type planting materials and adoption of good hygiene practices," Tulezi said.
Additionally, there has been disease prevalence which has led to the unripening of mature fruits or hardening.
"Some farmers have been harvesting immature avocadoes which has led to flagging of the avocado exports to the niche markets," he said.
Tulezi said the good practice guides contain strategies for addressing these challenges.
The horticulture industry brings into the country an average of Sh150 billion annually.