Agrotech Plus
Agrotech Plus, a Walk-in, solar-powered cold stations for 24/7 storage and preservation for fresh fruits, vegetables and other agricultural perishables like Fish.
The Problem
In developing countries, 45% of food spoils mainly due to lack of cold storage, 470 MILLION SMALL FARMERS TO LOSE 25% OF THEIR ANNUAL INCOME. The Perishable food especially fresh fruits and vegetables start to deteriorate as soon as they are harvested because they are cut off from their source of water and nutrition. They lose weight, texture, flavor, nutritional value and appeal. Cooling significantly slows down the rate of deterioration, thereby increasing the storage life of the produce.
The Solution
To address this issue, Our innovation, Agrotech Plus, is a “plug and play” modular, solar-powered walk-in cold room, for 24/7 off-grid storage and preservation of perishable foods. It adequately addresses the problem of post- harvest losses in fruits, vegetables and other perishable food. The cold storage is installed in major food production and consumption centers (in markets and farms), farmers place their produce in clean plastic crates, these plastic crates are stacked inside the cold room. This extends the freshness of fruits, vegetables and other perishable food from 2 days to about 21 days. The solar powered walk-in cold room is made of 120mm insulating cold room panels to retain cold. Energy from solar panels mounted on the roof-top of the cold room are stored in high-capacity batteries, these batteries feed an inverter which in turn feeds the refrigerating unit.
Stats
In Kenya, infrastructure issues such as lack of electrification and cold storage along the food supply chain, combined with the country’s hot climate, mean an alarming 40% of food produced every year is lost before ever reaching consumers. According to the World Bank, this food loss equates to 31% of Kenya’s total land use and 5% of its greenhouse gas emissions. In a country where agriculture employs two-thirds of its labor force, many smallholder farmers in rural areas must race to sell their fresh produce in the morning before it spoils in the midday heat, or else are forced to rely on costly, polluting diesel-powered refrigeration—resulting in slashed profits either way.
Food waste is not a problem unique to Kenya: The United Nations estimates that 25-30% of all food produced worldwide is never eaten and generates approximately 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually. UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 30-50 percent of food production is lost before it reaches the market due to problems ranging from improper use of inputs to lack of proper post-harvest storage, processing or transportation facilities.
Global food waste contributes 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions which is from inefficiency in post-harvest cold chains.
Organization Type:
Pilot
Headquarters:
Nairobi, Kenya
Stage:
Pilot
Working In:
Africa

Executive Director