Clean Cooling Network launches work with Kenyan farmers to build their own Community Cooling Hub
More than 130 Kenyan farmers attended a Clean Cooling Network open day - signing up for free training in Cold-chain and Postharvest Management, and testing the latest cold-chain technology.
The Community Cooling and Cold-chain event, in Kinale, was organised by the African Centre of Technology Studies (ACTS) which is partnering with the Centre for Sustainable Cooling, University of Birmingham and UNEP to set up the Clean Cooling Network Reference Community Cooling Hub (CCH) in Kiambu County.
Further events will engage farmers in the programme over the next two months as the new Farmer Co-Operative - Lari Horticulture Co-operative Ltd. (LHCL) is established to build, own operate a demonstrator Community Cooling Hub. LHCL will use the CCH to aggregate local production, structure connection to wider market access, and provide access to cooling technologies and logistics and improve post-harvest management through trainings.
The Open Day featured interactive demonstrations of various clean cooling technologies, including solar-powered pre-cooling and cold-storage and temperature-controlled refrigeration transport vehicles and solutions.
In addition to practical demonstrations, the Open Day served as a platform for discussions on the challenges farmers face regarding climate resilience, food security, nutrition and markets. Experts shared insights on the programme’s support, financing opportunities, and collaborative efforts to scale up sustainable cold-chain and market connectivity. ACTS team lead Catherine Kilelu commented:
“Farmers in Kiambu play a critical role in producing horticultural produce that is delivered across the country. However, lack of cold chain and collective action for aggregation marketing results in loss of over 40% of their production and contend with an unfair position in the market.”
Local farmers were shown the “try before you buy” cold-chain facilities they will be able use for an extended period to help them understand and test the value-add of cold-chain for protecting the quality of produce and create new markets, consider how it can be used for their community and help design a fixed Community Cooling Hub facility. As the Agribusiness Officer for the County Eunice Wainaina said at the event:
“We need to sort out the perennial market challenges for smallholder farmers. With such infrastructure and plans being demonstrated here today and through the creation of a co-operative we can do it.”
The project aims to enhance the value of diverse and quality horticultural produce - improving quality, market access and connectivity through collective action to boost the livelihoods of farmers, their communities and the overall economy.
The co-operative seeks to offer a range of services including aggregation enabled by sustainable cold chain technologies and logistics, extension and advisory services, access to quality agro-inputs, and facilitation of wider market connectivity to deliver quality horticulture produce to consumers as well as training on all previously mentioned topics.
The farmers were enthusiastic at the event. One noted “this is a good opportunity to empower the community”. Another commented “I am eager to join as I lack knowledge on how to better grow and market various horticultural crops.”
The programme will act as a reference for roll-out into further communities in Kenya as well as new markets across Africa including Rwanda, Lesotho and Senegal as the next phase. Toby Peters, Professor of Clean Cold at the University of Birmingham and Centre for Sustainable Cooling and Programme Lead, explained:
“This is a multi-year investment to build the necessary cold-chain system transformation pan-Africa to deliver inclusive, equitable and future-proofed cooling and cold-chain solutions with minimum environmental impact.
“Realisation of these goals will have major economic, social and environmental wins. Building on our foundational work to develop the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-chain, the tools and training, it is very exciting to have our first outreach community programme go live.”
For more information, please contact: Tony Moran, International Communications Manager, University of Birmingham +44 (0)7827 832312 or [email protected]
Photo: Farmers gather at the open day in Kinale to learn more about sustainable cooling.
The Clean Cooling Network is a global programme to provide the tools, knowledge, training and support to accelerate equitable and future-proofed cooling and cold-chain solutions with minimum environmental impact in developing markets. Delivery is through regional Centres and SPOKEs and an online knowledge and training platform (www.cleancooling.org). The Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-chain (ACES)in Kigali, Rwanda, along with the SPOKE in Kiambu County, Kenya, are being developed as the first reference sites. Expansion is already underway, targeting additional markets in Africa, including Senegal and Lesotho, alongside Rwanda and Kenya. Furthermore, a new Centre of Excellence is being built in Haryana, India, extending the programme’s global reach. With £18.5M of direct cash investment (Defra) - and more than 100% matched other government, grant and industry funding - the programme is delivered by a collaborative group of more than 65 research and experts, led by the Centre for Sustainable Cooling (University of Birmingham) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world's top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 8,000 international students from more than 150 countries.
Also in this section
Job Opportunities
-
Head of Operations, Kenya SPOKE
Kenya, AfricaApply before 6th January 2025
