Coldtivate launches the farmers’ interface

Building Trust in Cooling Solutions 

The food we relish on our plates is a testament to the extensive labour, toil, anticipation, and hope that culminate in its creation. Behind every delicious meal lies carefully orchestrated efforts by farmers, who nurture the land and sow the seeds, patiently tending to crops through different weather conditions. When the time comes to bring the harvest to the public, it is only fitting for farmers to pursue storage and distribution channels that adhere to the finest postharvest handling practices. This ensures that their crops reach consumers in the highest quality, yielding economic rewards commensurate with the efforts and finances invested.

In the past, the accessibility of affordable storage facilities with optimal postharvest handling practices has remained more of an elusive dream than a tangible reality, especially in low and middle-income countries. Even when such facilities are available, they are often located in city centres, requiring farmers to arrange for long-distance transportation to reach them. Faced with these challenges, most smallholder farmers opt for alternative, albeit less lucrative, avenues to sell their crops, resorting to intermediaries or middlemen. Studies show that, in Asia and Africa, a high level of engagement with the intermediaries was only common among smallholder farmers and older farmers to avoid marketing risks. Others argue that middlemen are crucial for connecting farmers to the final market, offering insights on consumer behaviour, changes in consumer tastes and preferences, and other market information. While the perception of intermediaries’ role remains a topic of debate, one aspect is undisputed: middlemen often reap substantial profits by purchasing farm products at significantly lower prices and selling them at inflated prices to consumers.

Under the Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant (Your VCCA) project, the initial stride towards empowering farmers in the postharvest distribution phase was to provide access to decentralised and cost-effective cold storage through Cooling-as-a-Service. However, a significant hurdle in increasing adoption has been the lack of trust regarding the preservation of crops until the next scheduled market or the opportune moment for selling. To help farmers stay informed about their crops and fully embrace this innovative solution, Your VCCA’s data-science based mobile application, Coldtivate, now includes a farmers’ interface.

What is the Farmers’ Interface?

The idea is straightforward: seeing is believing.

Coldtivate, initially adopted by cooling companies and operators to oversee cold rooms, has now broadened its scope. This expansion allows cooling users to efficiently track their stored produce within the cold rooms and conveniently monitor the remaining storage life or time to pick up (TTPU) for each crate they have checked in. With the user-friendly Coldtivate app installed on their smartphones, users receive in-app notifications, providing them with real-time updates on their stored crops. Users with feature phones can receive TTPU updates via SMS.

The calculation of the time to pick up is achieved through the utilisation of digital food twins developed by Empa. These digital twins simulate the ageing process of physical crops and provide TTPU forecasts by leveraging physics-based models, which use real-time data from hygrothermal sensors installed within the cold rooms.

How can Farmers Start Using the App?

Farmers have the option to independently sign up on Coldtivate or visit a cooling unit using the Your VCCA solution, where cold room operators can assist them with registration. If a farmer is already using the app, they can share their assigned code with cooling operators to start using a specific cooling unit.

Farmers who have not yet utilised the cold room can use Coldtivate’s map of cooling units to identify the closest available cold room, and benefit from Coldtivate’s Knowledge Hub. This resource offers up-to-date materials on postharvest best practices, recommended storage temperatures for various crops, and will soon be expanded to include captivating comics and videos that highlight the advantages of cooling and the Cooling-as-a-Service business model. These educational resources, which are already available on Your VCCA’s website, have been meticulously crafted by leading scientists, engineers, and data-scientists working in the postharvest sector.

Additionally, users based in India are able to visualise market price forecasts for various combinations of crops and markets across the country.  Equipped with this comprehensive data, farmers can make informed decisions on the optimal timing and location for selling their crops. This empowers them to avoid resorting to distress selling or indiscriminate disposal of unsold produce. By leveraging the market price forecast model, farmers can strategically plan their sales to maximise profitability, ensuring that their hard work and dedication translate into financial success. A similar feature will soon be available for users based in Nigeria.

Roberta Evangelista, the project’s Technical Lead, provides an overview of the user-friendly farmers’ interface. She explains how farmers can navigate the interface seamlessly. With features like crop information, remaining storage life, and TTPU notifications, farmers can easily monitor their stored crops. She also highlights the interface’s collaboration capabilities, allowing farmers to register independently or with assistance from cooling unit operators.

To ensure that the app is appealing and usable, it is currently available in four languages – English, Hindi, Gujarati, and Odia. As its usage expands, the Your VCCA team is working on incorporating more local languages based on requests from partnering cooling companies.

The Market Price Model

The more information farmers have at their disposal, the better equipped they are to make informed sales decisions.

Taking the next leap forward, Your VCCA is currently focused on developing a market price forecast model specifically tailored for select crops and locations in Nigeria (already available for users based in India).

As we continuously introduce new features, Your VCCA reaffirms its commitment to revolutionise the agricultural landscape. Our mission is to empower farmers with improved market navigation and increased confidence, ultimately ensuring that their hard work leads to tangible financial success.

What does the future hold?

Access to cold rooms is only the first step in supporting farmers in their journey towards a prosperous and sustainable future in agriculture. The subsequent and more challenging endeavour lies in enhancing their market access to lucrative opportunities.

The availability of multiple and strategically placed cold rooms throughout the country is essential for establishing a robust network that empowers farmers to sell their crops nationwide without compromising quality. Access to these dispersed cold rooms, conveniently located near markets and farms, plays a vital role in enabling farmers to efficiently distribute their produce. By leveraging such infrastructure, farmers can expand their market reach, while ensuring that their crops remain fresh and of high quality. This accessibility to cold rooms is a key factor in maximising economic opportunities for farmers and fostering a thriving agricultural landscape.

However, the investment in the cold chain sector remains limited, necessitating additional efforts to attract more funding and resources.

To enhance the ability of cooling companies to secure financing, we are designing an impact dashboard for Coldtivate that captures key indicators such as utilisation rate, revenue growth, postharvest loss reduction, and income increase for farmers associated with each cold room over different time periods. In addition, we are developing a standardised methodology to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions avoided through the use of renewable energy instead of fossil fuels, as well as the reduction in postharvest losses specific to each crop type. Cooling companies can export the impact dashboard for each cooling unit to showcase their creditworthiness to banks and investors.

This holistic approach not only highlights the financial and environmental benefits but also provides a valuable tool for demonstrating the positive impact of sustainable cooling practices.