NIGERIA

Building agricultural
resilience to climate change

Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant aims to mitigate post-harvest loss in the horticultural value chain, a leading cause of widespread poverty among smallholder farmers. We collaborate with local cooling companies and farmers organisations under the Cooling-as-a-Service business model to make solar-powered cold storage facilities economically and geographically accessible.
Our mobile application, Coldtivate, helps cooling companies manage cold rooms more efficiently, and leverages data science to help farmers secure fair prices for their produce and enhance regional food security. Together, these efforts help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make the agricultural sector become more resilient to a warming planet.
The Solution
INDIA

Building agricultural
resilience to climate change

Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant aims to mitigate post-harvest loss in the horticultural value chain, a leading cause of widespread poverty among smallholder farmers. We collaborate with local cooling companies and farmers organisations under the Cooling-as-a-Service business model to make solar-powered cold storage facilities economically and geographically accessible.
Our mobile application, Coldtivate, helps cooling companies manage cold rooms more efficiently, and leverages data science to help farmers secure fair prices for their produce and enhance regional food security. Together, these efforts help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make the agricultural sector become more resilient to a warming planet.
The Solution

Launched in 2021, Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant or Your VCCA is a collaboration between the BASE Foundation and Empa (the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology).

Our Impact

5573

smallholder farmers reached across 5 countries

61.8%

reduction of post-harvest losses for farmers
using cold rooms supported by Your VCCA

43.7%

increase in the revenues received by cooling
users from selling the stored food

WHERE WE WORK

Your VCCA collaborates with cold storage manufacturers and providers, farmer-producer organisations, and women’s self-help groups situated in low and middle-income countries. Presently, we are actively engaged in India, Nigeria, and Guinea-Bissau. Within each of these countries, we have tailored our solutions to address the unique requirements of the local environment.

Delve deeper into our initiatives and pilot projects within each of these countries to understand the specifics of our approach.
Explore
Where we work Elements

Step-by-Step Guide to
Adopting Your VCCA

Your VCCA offers freely accessible learning material to support cooling companies and users in adopting the Cooling-as-a-Service business model and the Coldtivate app. These resources  encompass a gender-sensitive manual to educate cold room operators on managing multi-commodity cold storage facilities, awareness-raising materials for farmers highlighting the advantages of post-harvest cooling, and detailed instructions on how to digitalise operations at cold rooms using the free-to-use Coldtivate app.
Learn more

Apply to the Your VCCA
Catalyst Programme

Are you a cooling implementer working in the agricultural sector, or a software company interested in self-hosting the Coldtivate app to support cold chain operations?

The programme helps you make cold storage financially and operationally sustainable, earn the trust of users, and build the capacity of your managers and trainers. Software companies can also get support to adapt Coldtivate for commercial use. Support includes 1-1 sessions with Your VCCA team, pricing tools, learning material for your team, and ready-made resources for operator training and farmer awareness sessions.
Learn more and apply

LATEST NEWS

9 November 2025

Missed the Your VCCA E-Summit?
Read more

24 October 2025

The Race Against Spoilage: The Case for Passive Cooling in Guinea-Bissau
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17 September 2025

Your VCCA hosts its first Global Summit on Sustainable Cooling
Read more
Learn more

CONSORTIUM

Funders:
Data.org Logo
Giz Logo
Climate SDC Logo
Implementers:
Logo BASE
Empa Logo
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