Hilary Benn visits Homegrown in Naivasha
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn wrote this diary during his trip to Kenya and Antarctica. He attended the Governing Council of the United Nations Environmental Programme in Nairobi and visited a number of schemes and projects, including Homegrown; he then went to Antarctica to look at climate change research there.
Tuesday 17 Feb 2009
We only got four and a half hours sleep on the plane to Nairobi. But this was more than made up for by the sight of the Rift Valley – the great plain created by the pulling apart of two tectonic plates – and the extinct volcano, Mount Longonot. We were flying to Lake Naivasha, and the pilot made a tight turn so we could get a good view of the hippos and pink flamingos before putting down on a narrow grass airstrip. We had come to visit Homegrown – one of the rose growing companies that are clustered around the lake. A couple of weeks ago Bob Watson, Defra’s Chief Scientist, was talking to me about integrated pest management. “Basically it’s getting good bugs to eat bad bugs” explained Bob. Well, Homegrown – working with a Kenyan technology company – are certainly on the case, and it was enormously impressive.....
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