C37 - Solar Powered Reefer Containers for Supporting Cold Chain in South Asia

About 30% of fruits and vegetables grown in South Asia (India - 40 million tonnes amounting to US$ 13 billion) get wasted annually due to gaps in cold Chain like poor infrastructure, insufficient cold storage capacity, unavailability of cold storages in close proximity to farms, poor transportation infrastructure etc. Enough attention has been paid at the Pre-Harvest stage for boosting up the levels of production by techniques like crop rotation, soil conservation, pest control, fertilizers, irrigation etc. But, Post Harvest issues have been addressed inadequately. Despite having achieved food security, the well being of millions of farmers and farm workers who have been the backbone of agriculture in the region continues to be a matter of grave concern. Operating costs for Cold Storage Units in the region are a above $60 per cubic metre per year compared to less than $30 in the West. Much of this wastage can be mitigated by using Solar Powered Cold storages. Further, about 30-35% of these losses can be reduced by transporting the freshly harvested fruits and vegetables in refrigerated containers thus closing this gap in the cold chain. For India, we would need about 40,000 TEUs of refrigerated containers with about 0.5 million sq. metres of solar PV panels valued at US$ 1.1 billion fixed on their rooftops, to transport this freshly harvested produce, placed strategically at various locations in the farms all across the country. Commercially, the payback period for this mammoth project is quite attractive.