Haryana-UK Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Crop Post-Harvest Management and Cold-Chain (CoE-SPMCC)
The Government of Haryana, in collaboration with The Clean Cooling Network team, has initiated the establishment of a state-of-the-art, first-of-its-kind Haryana-UK Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Crop Post-Harvest Management and Cold-Chain (CoE-SPMCC) in Panchkula.
This Centre of Excellence will focus on reducing post-harvest losses, including the development of guidelines and protocols; setting up in-house testing facilities; demonstrations of low-GWP refrigeration and energy-efficient systems; conducting capacity building and awareness raising through tailor made trainings; business model development, and facilitate the incubation of innovators and start-ups, among other initiatives. The CoE will study and understand the total cold-chain demand from farmer to market and develop solutions, course, policies, business models that are sustainable and fit for the market.
Contribution from Government of Haryana
The state Government of Haryana has committed funding to build the CoE that includes the administrative building and the key infrastructure such as test laboratories, demonstration facilities, community cooling hub, training centre and incubation hub. To establish the CoE, the state government has allotted ca. 15 acres (6 ha.) of land within the premises of the Directorate of Horticulture (DoH) at Panchkula, Haryana.
Timeline
The core activities of the CoE will be implemented in three phases viz. strategy phase, implementation phase and scaling up phase.
Phase I: Planning Phase and first training launched
The phase continues to the end of December 2024, The Detailed Project Plan has been approved by various partners, training courses commenced and resources are being hired.
Phase II: Build and fit-out Implementation Phase
This phase will commence form Jan 2025. This phase will consist of construction activities and commencement of train the trainer and testing facilities.
Phase III: Operationalisation and scale-up and development phase
This phase is planned to commence from January 2026. During this phase various startups will be onboarded and incubated for the scaling up of CoE activities among others.
