Impact Data Methodology

Number of regions where the Coldtivate app is currently being piloted across India, Nigeria, and the Philippines.

Cooling companies across India, Nigeria, and the Philippines which we are supporting in adopting the Your VCCA solution.

Number of cooling units where the Coldtivate app is used to record check-in and check-out operations.

The summed capacity of all cooling units registered in Coldtivate. Usually, cold rooms range from 5-10MT.

Number of smallholder farmers and petty traders who have used cold storage with Coldtivate at least once. The percentage of females is calculated from the declared gender of cooling users when they sign up on Coldtivate.

The number of indirect beneficiaries is calculated by multiplying the total number of cooling users by the average household size for the country where the company is located. The information about the average household size is extracted from https://population.un.org/Household/index.html#/countries/.

Number of smallholder farmers and petty traders reached via capacity building activities and  app training and workshops.

Tons of produce that has been checked-in in the Coldtivate app, across all pilot cold rooms.

Number of crates that have been checked-in in Coldtivate cross all pilot cold rooms. Each crate contains 20-25 kg of produce. Plastic crates used inside cooling units have standard sizes and are used to optimize the ventilation of the crops and reduce the risk of damage.

All cooling units we support are multi-commodity, i.e. various types of commodities are stored simultaneously. Here we present the top 6 commodities stored across all pilot cold rooms.

Food loss evolution is a percentage representing the average monthly food loss or savings per user and crop type across all pilot rooms. This calculation compares baseline loss data, gathered during user registration on the app, with postharvest loss data collected weekly while users store their crops in the cooling unit.

Data from different crops and users within each cooling unit are averaged over time periods to determine the percentages displayed on the Impact page. Food loss evolution is the percentage difference between the loss recorded in the ‘post-checkout’ surveys (while using cooling) and the baseline (before cold storage).

The revenue evolution for cooling users measures the average percentage change in farmer revenue by comparing sales from cold storage with sales prior to using it (baseline data). Baseline data is collected during registration through the ‘Cooling User Survey,’ where farmers and traders report their pre-storage weekly crop sales. Weekly ‘Post-checkout’ surveys track post-storage sales data. Monthly aggregation of post-checkout data estimates the total monthly revenue for each user and crop type using cold storage, which is then compared to the baseline and averaged over all crops, users, and cooling units. The revenue evolution displayed in the Impact Dashboard represents the percentage difference between post-checkout revenue (while using cooling) and baseline revenue (before cold storage).

Tons of CO2 that have been avoided per year obtained by summing the Tons of CO2 avoided because of the usage of sustainable cooling solutions, and because of the reduction of postharvest losses.

Compared to cold rooms powered by diesel generators, solar-powered cold rooms like the ones where the Your VCCA solution is piloted avoid the emission of 19.571 ton / year. This value is the average amount avoided for a 3 MT cooling unit, and is multiplied by the number of pilot cold rooms.

Each kg of spoiled causes on average the emission of 2.5 kg CO2e. To calculate the tons of CO2e avoided, we multiply this factor by the average amount of food saved per year across all rooms, defined as the amount of loss avoided out of the total capacity of each 3MT room operational for 1 year.

Cumulative investments in CAPEX for the cold rooms where the solution is being piloted. Each 3-5MT cold room requires an upfront investment of around  $ 25000.