Farm gate
Produce is collected near growers before field heat and distress selling destroy value.
Energy + agriculture
One cold corridor.
A decentralised cold-chain corridor for produce that loses value too quickly: farm-gate spokes, solar cooling, aggregation, handling and buyer linkage in one working system.
20-35%Estimated income effect
>75%Target utilisation
50-100 MTSub-hub unit
Indicative figures
The model is built around loss, time and market access.
Figures are indicative model estimates until implementation records confirm field performance.
Primary estimated outcome
+20-35%
Estimated farmer income effect where cooling, quality control and buyer access hold together.
Target utilisation
>75%
Spoke capacity
5-10 MT
Sub-hub capacity
50-100 MT
Central hub
200+ MT
Project logic
Keep produce cold, sorted and close to buyers.
The corridor stays clear: farm-gate handling, solar cooling, aggregation and buyer movement.
Spoke
Small pre-cooling nodes hold first quality control and move produce toward aggregation.
Sub-hub
Solar storage, grading, packing and handling services create the value step.
Buyer flow
Buyer channels pull graded produce into markets that can pay for quality.
What changes
The project moves produce before value is lost.
The strongest partner logic is the contrast between scattered handling and a corridor with clear checkpoints.
What the broken chain does
- 01Produce waits in heat before aggregation.
- 02Small volumes move before grading and handling are controlled.
- 03Buyers discount quality because consistency is weak.
- 04Loss, distress selling and transport risk stay hidden.
What the corridor changes
- 01Farm-gate spokes reduce the time before cooling.
- 02Sub-hubs handle grading, packing and service flow.
- 03Buyer channels receive sorted loads with clearer quality.
- 04Route data shows utilisation, dwell time and rejection rates.
Capacity ladder
A corridor is built in layers before it becomes a large cold-room network.
The design keeps smaller farm-gate assets close to production while pushing heavier storage and buyer coordination into larger hubs.
Figure notes
Read the figures by status.
Partners can read planning assumptions separately from delivery results.
Post-harvest loss reduction
Target
Improved cooling and handling are expected to reduce avoidable value loss.
Hub viability
Model assumption
Utilisation, dwell time and tariff structure drive the field case.
Farmer income effect
Estimate
The model estimates a 20-35% improvement where quality and buyer access hold.
Validation gates
Replication follows field records.
The first corridor has to pass these checks before it becomes a national cold-chain platform.
Utilisation
Hub use, dwell time and repeat demand are tracked by month.
Quality
Buyer rejection, spoilage and grade recovery are recorded.
Service split
Handling, storage and buyer-channel records are separated.
Governance
Asset ownership, tariff rules and responsibilities are documented.
Energy
Solar uptime and backup requirements are measured in field operation.
Replication
Only the proven corridor unit is repeated in the next geography.
Partner ask
Open one corridor, then prove the working rhythm.
The corridor needs anchor buyers, cold-chain operators, renewable energy finance, producer organisations and field implementation partners.
Build the first corridor with clear checkpoints.
Measure loss, utilisation, payment cycle and buyer pull.
Expand only after the working unit is proven.