Khawzawl, India — For Indian farmer Lalmuankimi Bawitlung, selling her annual orange harvest is often a race against time to beat the heat.
The Mizoram Science, Technology & Innovation Council worked with cold chain company Inficold to set up the 2.2-million-rupee facility, which is open to about 235 farmers such as Lalmuankimi across several villages in the area. It meant she could store the rest of her last harvest in February, 7kg-8kg of oranges, instead of discarding them.
To tackle this, more companies and civil society groups — often backed by government funding — are now working to set up sustainable cold storage units, powered by solar, nationwide.In the past decade, the government has implemented policies and action plans, and provided subsidies to develop cold chain systems across the country as part of a drive to cut food waste. About 40% of food produced in India is wasted at a cost of billions of dollars per year, the UN has estimated.
“Solar-powered cold storage hubs ... take care of both the environmental and socioeconomic challenges without raising carbon footprints,” said Rekha Krishnan, CEO of Clean Energy Access Network, an industry association in India. The entrepreneur acknowledged there are challenges to scaling up such as transporting the large “containerised” units across poor roads and rough terrain to remote parts of India. But as long as they can cut carbon emissions, “the pains are worth it to keep our environment cleaner”, said Goel.
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Source: BBCAfrica - 🏆 23. / 61 Read more »