Nicaragua

 2007-2008

Itzik Posalski (itzikp@Efal.com) – Efal (Agriance) Agronomist specialist:

B.Sc. Agronomy; Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot. with more than 30 years of growing vegetable at the Ministry Of Agriculture of israel and more 6 years at the efal .

 

Project purpose: growing Blocky pepper for export to USA & Canada.

The idea behind this project was – growing and marketing high quality of blocky pepper in different colors to USA & Canada during the winter.

Project description: Those two countries import peppers mainly from Mexico. In order to create Nicaragua local production & giving growing options to the local people and moreover; having the ability of growing export quality fruits let this idea to come true. 10 hectares of greenhouses (1 hectare X 10 greenhouses) build at Sebaco village. Local agronomists employed to this project by involving and exposing them to this technology. All the facilities were brought from Israel – greenhouses, irrigation systems and others. Combining the Israeli know-how with the Israeli facilities made it happen.

The planting time was at the second week of August and the harvesting started at early November. The growth was done in soilless culture and the drainage Water was circulated with fresh water in order to get the exact fertilizers concentration and use them again for irrigation.by this way they saved about 30% of water and fertilizers. The irrigation systems were completely controlled. The plants were trellised vertically using two branches per plant as it is done in Holland (Dutch system). The pest control planed carefully while using the right pesticides on time All the fruits were sorted before exporting for reaching high quality product.

The fruits were sent for export in container in 7 centigrade degree which is the best temperature to keep peppers in storage. That temperature was kept also during the shipment and the product reached fresh to the market.

The six month of production brought 120-130 tons per hectare which is a very good result.

Our Agronomists planning and support improved itself and gave the owners its return.