A worker cleans the Mazao bio-digester at Imenti Tea Factory in Meru. [George Kaimenyi, Standard]
Mazao Fertilisers, a local start-up manufacturing liquid organic fertilisers and organic digesters has been admitted to a Danish-funded programme that helps grow businesses engaged in green projects.
The firm based in Meru county is expected to receive Sh10 million in funding over two years to strengthen its operations.
The access to finance under the programme is up to Sh5 million for the first year, with a possibility for a further one year extension at another Sh5 million.
“Mazao organic liquid fertiliser is 100 per cent organic liquid fertiliser. It is also blended with natural anti-fungal, anti-pest and antibacterial properties, making it a one-stop shop for farmers, because it is both a compound fertiliser, which is used throughout the life of the crop. This involves planting, flowering and fruiting stages, and also a natural disease control agent for crops,” the firm’s director Thuranira Thiaine said.
The digester that the company manufactures is used in waste management and to extinguish odour in toilets, septic tanks, municipal sewerage, mortality pits, placenta pits and industrial effluent.
“The natural digesters catalyze the natural decomposition of the waste organic matter, letting out clean, treated, safe water, which can be recycled for flush-out, cleaning, gardening or reforestation,” he said.
At the United Nations Climate Change conference at Glasgow, Scotland, the start-up was selected into the Greenbiz Accelerator cohort, for the year 2021.
The programme is run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and the Kenya Climate Innovation Centre.
It targets enabling 300 businesses to create over 3,000 job opportunities in the sectors of renewable energy and energy efficiency, agriculture, water, commercial forestry and waste management for a five year period.
By focusing on these sectors, the project hopes to reduce poverty and hunger, broaden access to clean water and sanitation as well as affordable and clean energy and climate action.
“The primary focus of the programme is to increase commercialisation and scale-up of climate-smart innovations, which create decent jobs, increase access to low carbon energy sources and community and household resilience to climate change as well as other environmental and social benefits,” he added.