'Powering Livelihoods' is an initiative by the independent think tank Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and Villgro, which is dedicated to advancing livelihoods through clean technology innovations that have the potential to impact 37 million livelihoods in India's agriculture and textile sectors. This initiative is aimed at scaling commercial deployments of decentralised renewable energy (DRE) based livelihood technologies including cold-storage startups with sustainable, energy-efficient, and scalable technologies.
By helping startups scale innovative technologies and by facilitating commercial partnerships between entities like go-to-market partners, end-user financiers, etc, Powering Livelihoods seeks to improve large-scale commercial adoption of DRE livelihood technologies in rural areas. The large-scale adoption of these technologies would lead to improving opportunities for higher sustainable income, decrease in drudgery, increase in market access, reduction in food loss, and thus empower communities, all while promoting gender equity and environmental sustainability.
The cold-storage solutions that the programme supports, particularly in regions where food waste and supply chain inefficiencies are widespread, have a variety of solutions designed for the prevention of food loss right from the farm gate to the last mile retailer node.
As the global demand for food security and sustainable agriculture practices continues to rise, the need for energy-efficient and environmentally responsible cold storage solutions has never been more urgent, especially in the scenario of climate change and rising heat affecting food loss more than ever.
Cold storage systems are essential in extending the shelf life of agricultural produce, reducing waste, and ensuring that products reach markets without spoilage all while providing a better alternative to farmers against distress sale or throw-away of surplus produce. However, the existing cold storage infrastructure in many regions remains limited or outdated, often relying on conventional, energy-intensive methods that exacerbate climate change.
Key Focus Areas of the Powering Livelihoods Initiative:
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Commercial Scale-Up through Support to Startups: The initiative is committed to driving the growth of startups by providing tailored support, strategic guidance, and resources to scale their operations effectively in the market.
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Awareness Generation through Demand Ignition: They focus on creating targeted awareness initiatives designed to stimulate demand, educating consumers and driving market engagement for innovative products and services.
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Affordability through Affordable Financing Solutions: They further aim to enhance affordability by offering flexible and accessible financing options that empower consumers and businesses to access the products and services they need without financial strain.
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Accessibility through Channel Partnerships: By fostering strategic channel partnerships, they enhance accessibility, ensuring that products and services are available to a wider audience through diverse and reliable distribution networks.
Game-Changing Solutions in the Cold Storage Sector:
The Powering Livelihoods initiative highlights several key startups that are revolutionizing the cold storage sector with their sustainable and innovative solutions:
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Rukart - Subjee-Cooler (Cold Storage): Based on evaporative cooling, Rukart's Subjee-Cooler is designed to extend the shelf life of leafy vegetables and fruits by 2-7 days. Ideal for retailers, the Subjee-Cooler preserves produce without the use of chemicals, preventing income loss due to spoilage. It also doubles as a ripening chamber, offering further versatility.
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Temperate - Multi-Commodity Cold Storage: Temperate addresses India’s cold chain infrastructure gap with its low-power, cost-effective cold storage technology. Consuming 80% less power than traditional refrigeration systems, Temperate maintains optimal conditions for fruits and vegetables, increasing shelf life and reducing waste.
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CoolCrop - Solar-Powered Farm-Gate Cold Storage: CoolCrop offers energy-efficient, portable, modular cold storage units powered by solar energy. Designed for farm-gate use, these units provide cooling services to farmers, cooperatives, and entrepreneurs, enabling them to store produce sustainably and make informed market decisions with predictive analytics.
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Newleaf - Biomass-Based Refrigeration System: Newleaf’s patented refrigeration technology is powered by farm waste, offering a sustainable alternative to conventional cold storage. The system is versatile, supporting cold storage, pre-cooling, ripening, and even mushroom cultivation, helping farmers increase shelf life and negotiate better prices for their produce.
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Saptkrishi - SabjiKothi (Vegetable storage for cart vendors): Sabjikothi is a highly affordable, low weight and space-effective cooling box based on evaporative cooling technology, that cart vendors can use to sell their commodities without fear of it perishing. The cooling box keeps the commodities fresh for about 2 weeks with anti-pathogen coating to keep them from perishing. Thus Fruits and Vegetables can also be procured in bulk at a negotiated price from wholesalers by the cart vendors.
As cold-storage startups like Rukart, Temperate, Newleaf, CoolCrop and Saptkrishi continue to innovate, they are paving the way for a more sustainable and efficient cold chain system. The programme believes that the partnerships created between such technology providers, the go-to-market partners, and end-user financiers would create an ecosystem that would thrive on its own and subsequently create more such partnerships in the future, even without the support of a programme like PL.
By leveraging renewable energy, low-power technologies, and environmentally friendly solutions, these startups address the dual challenges of food waste and sustainability. With the support of Powering Livelihoods programme, evidence of use cases where commercial viability of such technologies is being generated. This helps ecosystem partners like market distributors, financiers, government entities, and the end users like farmers, micro-entrepreneurs, and food-producing companies to confidently embrace sustainable cold storage technologies for such use cases.
