On 14^th April 2022, a team from KEPSA led by the Deputy CEO, Competitiveness & Operation Mr. Victor Ogalo visited the Astral Aerial training site at Gathoni Park Farm in Limuru, Kiambu county. This is part of the ongoing KEPSA visits to members.

Astral Aerial Solutions is an affiliate of Astral Aviation and offers drone services such as aerial surveillance and security, agriculture, aerial mapping and photography, environmental and wildlife conservation, energy and utility among other services.

Mr. Ogalo commended Astral Aerial Solutions for their use of drones as a form of technology to improve and grow the yields in the Kenyan agricultural sector. He noted that KEPSA will continue supporting it’s members by highlighting their services.

The company boasts of a special drone created for offering agricultural solutions such as crop spraying, aerial mapping which entails crop counting, crop health analysis, farm-gaps identification etc, which in return assists in generating data that adds to the crop yield.

Mr. Kush Gadhia, the company Business Development Manager, noted that the drone has the capacity to spray up to 150 acres in a day, an achievement that has resulted to a 30% increase in yield for farmers in Eldoret, Kitale and Narok where they have offered their services.

Astral Aerial Solutions has also partnered with Safaricom through Digi farm, a platform that offers farmers convenient, one-stop access to a variety of services such as information on high-quality seeds, fertilizers, animal feeds and agricultural chemicals. The company in partnership with Seedballs Kenya, is taking part in tree planting activities, which he noted is the fastest and most efficient way if Kenya is to achieve the set target of planting 2 billion trees in a year.

In the past, the company has also deployed its drones in the fight against locusts in the country as well as in surveillance and security operations.