Affordable Access to Solar Powered Cold Storages

Cold storages are not new to Indian agriculture, with more than 15,000 storages with a capacity of around 1,000 MT located throughout the country. However, access to these remains quite limited for smallholders in remote areas. Closing this gap requires solutions which are adequate for such remote contexts, and the solar-powered cold storages promoted by GIC are a feasible option.

The promoted systems are ideal, as the smaller 5 to 30 MT units allow for decentralised storage at the farm gate. The system allows for control of temperature and humidity according to the specific needs of the chosen produce, enabling farmers to maximise the shelf life of their crops. In addition to the benefits and income from storage, the solution allows for net metering of surplus energy, providing additional income and enhancing the system’s feasibility.

To enhance the feasibility of the service model, two value-added services were integrated with the solar-powered cold storages: solar-powered sorting and grading operations, and the mobile application "Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant" (YVCCA). Solar-powered machinery for sorting and grading was installed at the farm gate, giving farmers access to reliable information on the quality of their produce to strengthen their position in price negotiations. YVCCA supports improved cold storage use by predicting the shelf life of apples based on quality assessments at harvest and monitoring temperature and humidity inside the storage units, which helps farmers optimize storage duration and market timing.

The CaaS model enables smallholder farmers and cooperatives to access solar-powered cold storage infrastructure without the burden of high initial investments and ownership. A technology provider (CoolCrop) installs, operates and maintains the cold storage units at or near the farmgate, and farmers or cooperatives pay a service fee to use the facility. This fee can be based on the quantity of produce stored, such as by weight or crate, or defined as a flat rate and is based on the total costs of installing, operating, maintaining, and financing the equipment. The viability of the intervention depends largely on selecting an appropriate pricing strategy, which covers operational costs while remaining affordable to formers, and furthermore the financial structure of the initial investment. Service providers earn revenue through storage and transportation fees, and potentially through net metering of surplus solar energy. Furthermore, the model promotes the addition of value-added services at the farmgate through the inclusion of services conventionally performed at packhouses. Solar-powered machinery for sorting and grading can be installed alongside the cold storages, creating an additional income stream for the service model. Farmers and cooperatives benefit from the reduction of post-harvest losses, preservation of quality and shelf life and the possibility to delay sales beyond market gluts, leading to improved income. 

In Himachal Pradesh, poor accessibility and weak road infrastructure expose storage providers to high operational costs. The management and maintenance of cold storage units remains the greatest hurdle to achieving economic sustainability. To address these challenges, the model includes a long-term strategy of distributing cold storage units clustered geographically. However, this becomes economically viable only after the model is scaled up and widely disseminated, requiring substantial upfront capital or external subsidies in the early phase.

To enable large-scale adoption of the CaaS-model, financial support is needed to lower the high initial investment costs. The pilot initiatives were funded by GIZ and UNDP. However, adoption at scale requires significantly larger volumes of funding, which, in the Indian context, is most realistically achievable through public support mechanisms that can reach smallholder farmers. 

To address this, GIC worked closely with its political partners to promote the creation of a government support mechanism under the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH). As part of this effort, GIC collaborated on the development of a cold storage unit at the National Centre for Cold Chain Development (NCCD), which serves as a basis for drafting official guidelines. These guidelines include technical specifications and eligibility criteria for accessing government subsidies for decentralized cold storage systems. 

Once adopted, these guidelines will help institutionalize the solution and expand access for smallholder farmers, improving affordability and facilitating wider adoption in remote and underserved areas.

In addition to supporting farmers’ access to cold storages and value added services, the GIC project conducted awarenessraising trainings for farmers covering not only the operation of the technology itself, but also broader insights on how to avoid post-harvest losses. These trainings were designed as a replicable training module to benefit farmers on a broader scale. The module enables other practitioners and organisations in the enabling environment to learn about the approach and to pass practical knowledge on to farmers, empowering them to appropriately manage their produce and thereby maximising income.

The module includes a variety of topics aimed at giving farmers a comprehensive and actionable overview of the need for cold storage, the technologies and methods available, and how to adopt them effectively, including information on funding and government programs enabling their access. 

In addition to raising awareness, GIC aimed at strengthening farmers’ capacity to make use of cold storages systems in practice and covered topics such as system operation and crop-specific storage needs.