Making Cold Rooms Operationally Viable: Your VCCA’s Onboarding Kit has the tools you need

Five years into post-harvest cooling, one lesson stands out above all others: Setting up cold rooms is the easy part. The real challenge lies in keeping them operational, trusted, and embedded in a thriving ecosystem. That is the bottom of the iceberg no one warns you about. With climate financing already running scarce, the risk of cold rooms turning into stranded assets is a wasted investment no one can afford.

But here’s the paradox: farmers need cooling. They want to keep crops fresh longer and unlock better prices. So why don’t cooling businesses automatically succeed?

Because success depends on a series of tough, nuanced decisions that are rarely clear-cut and subject to trade-offs.

Let’s think through some of these decisions, starting with the choice of cooling technology. Should a solar-powered cold room be established, and if so, should it be located at the market or on the farm? If a cold room is set up, what fee should the company charge farmers to ensure buy-in while keeping the facility operational? Do existing networks, where farmers sell directly at the market or through intermediaries, serve them well, or is there a need to integrate offtakers into the cooling solution to incentivise storage against a fee? How should payouts be calibrated to balance fairness with operational costs? Underlying all of this is trust and adoption, often the most fragile link: can farmers truly internalise the cold room’s value, and can digital tools, training, and engagement strategies in low-connectivity contexts build confidence without disrupting local norms?

These are the questions that the Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant (Your VCCA) project has tackled since 2021, developing practical tools to address them. Today, these tools, along with case studies, FAQs, guided videos, and other resources designed to simplify complex decisions, are all bundled in the Your VCCA Onboarding Kit, which spans five key categories:

• Feasibility Assessment
• Business Models
• Coldtivate App for Cold Rooms
• Coldtivate Open-Source Code
• Awareness Raising Material

Module 1: Feasibility Assessment

(Of particular interest to cooling companies management and academics)

This module features videos that guide you through a range of passive and active cooling technologies available in the market, with a particular focus on preventive and modulation strategies that help maximise efficiency and preserve crop quality. But which solution is the best fit for your context? The CoolSel selection matrix, developed by researchers at Empa and Wageningen University, makes this decision easier by evaluating multiple parameters essential for choosing both the right technology and its optimal location.

You can see the matrix in action through a practical case study from the Post-Harvest Market Assessment conducted in Bafata, Gabu, and Quinara in Guinea-Bissau, demonstrating how it can inform real-world cooling decisions. The module concludes with actionable tips and tricks to optimise cold storage performance, covering critical factors such as airflow, temperature, and humidity management.

Module 2: Business Model

(Of particular interest for cooling companies business developers and management)

The second module takes you inside the world of Cooling-as-a-Service (CaaS), guiding you through a hands-on walkthrough of the CaaS Pricing Tool. Think of it as a decision companion: the tool (in Excel) helps you calculate the right cooling fee per crate, balancing operating costs with what farmers consider fair. It supports cooling companies in finding a price that encourages farmers to store their crops, providing them a clear path to profit while keeping the service financially sustainable. By following along, you will see how small adjustments in pricing can ripple through adoption, farmer behaviour, and overall system viability.

Module 3: Coldtivate for Cold Rooms 

(Of particular interest to cooling companies, cold room operators, cooling users, and those training the community on using the app)

In this module, you will not only be introduced to the Coldtivate App and its features, but also learn how to use these step by step. The app covers everything from inventory management and shelf-life tracking to survey collection, impact tracking on business and social outcomes, market price prediction models, and even an integrated marketplace that allows farmers to sell their crops directly from the cold room.

Think of Coldtivate as a multipurpose store, designed to meet the needs of different users through three tailored views: cooling company employees, who have an overview across all cooling units; cold room operators, who manage inventory and survey collection for a specific unit; and cooling users and consumers, who focus on monitoring shelf life and accessing the marketplace.

Each user type is guided through account setup and integration into the wider cooling ecosystem via step-by-step walkthrough videos and FAQs. While valuable for all users, this section is especially recommended for trainers from cooling companies, who play a critical role in onboarding operators and farmers to the app. This section includes a trainer test that provides certification, confirming mastery of the app’s features and ensuring accurate knowledge is passed on to operators and farmers.

Why use Coldtivate? Behind the scenes, it is powered by data science and physics-based models, designed to gradually introduce digitalisation as a tool for building trust. The app is adapted for accessibility within the community, including availability in 10 languages, and SMS support for those without smartphones, ensuring no one is left behind.

Module 4: Coldtivate Code 

(Of particular interest to cooling companies and the software developers they work with)

Beyond being freely accessible, Coldtivate’s code has also been made open-source, complete with detailed documentation to help you integrate it into an existing app or even create your own spin-off tailored to your country’s context. To support five companies in understanding the backend structure and functionality of the app, Your VCCA is running the Coldtivate Open Source Incubator from September through October. While the recorded training will be publicly available starting November 2025, the open-source documentation is already accessible and ready to use.

Module 5: Awareness Raising

(Of particular interest to cooling companies and their trainers working with the community)

Awareness raising is often underestimated, yet it is arguably the thread that ties together all the other efforts and ensures they stand the test of time. In this section, Your VCCA shares materials developed and tested over the years to train cold room operators on managing multi-commodity cold rooms, alongside resources created for farmers to better understand the benefits of cooling. These include simple yet powerful storytelling tools, such as comics that compare how fruits and vegetables need cooling to stay fresh with how humans need it for comfort and good health in hot climates. All comics are illustrated in local attire and familiar settings to resonate with communities.

For researchers, this section will soon feature an in-depth explanation of the Digital Twin models behind the app, which calculate the remaining shelf life of each stored crate, developed for 26 different types of fruits and vegetables. You will also find videos explaining the Life Cycle Assessment method that powers Coldtivate’s Impact Dashboard, factoring in cold room characteristics, refrigerant types, and stored crops to calculate the CO₂ emissions avoided through cooling. And there is much more to explore!

If you would like to contribute to this growing pool of capacity-building material, we would love to collaborate. Our approach is always to work with methods, images, and stories that connect authentically with cooling users. With full credit given, your material can be featured on the Kit and made accessible to a wide community of cooling practitioners. To contribute, please write to us at info@yourvcca.org.

Support Sessions

Still have questions after going through the material? You can book support sessions with topic experts for direct guidance. This feature is available until April 2026, so we encourage you to make the most of it. We look forward to connecting with you!

The creation of the Onboarding Kit was funded by the ClimateWorks Foundation.