From June 25 to 30, Livingstone worked in Kazakhstan on the preparation of the building and implementation of two GrowLabs. A GrowLab is planned in the Astana region (Nur-Sultan) and the other in the Almaty region.
Both projects are realized in collaboration with local investors and are going to contribute to the improvement of the quality of plant material in Kazakhstan. Although the range of plants to be produced has not yet been definitively determined, there is already collaboration with local nurseries, organizations for seed potato growers and research institutions to make the most optimal selection. The intended locations have the right infrastructure and are not far from major cities.
Visits to a local tree nurseries showed that there is a lot of room for improvement. Most companies are not optimally equipped and use highly outdated techniques. Because there is more and more room for private initiatives, the demand for quality-improving techniques in has increased sharply.
In addition to the use of outdated techniques, the poor starting material is a problem. The disease pressure in young plant material is very large and has increased over time. The companies that will operate the GrowLabs intend to help tree nurseries not only with good planting material, but also with modernizing their business operations.
Crops that are primarily in the spotlight for growing in the GrowLab are fruit trees, berries, nuts and seed potatoes. But there is also interest in ornamental trees and flowers.
