India remains the second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables globally. However, the nation faces a severe paradox. Despite a significant rise in production, internal food security remains elusive. Post-harvest losses represent one of the primary obstacles, costing approximately USD 18.5 billion annually.
The root of this crisis lies in a fragile and incomplete cold chain. Historically, storage facilities were centralised and inappropriate for diverse crops. These older systems often focused on single commodities and left farmers with few options for high-value fruits and vegetables. Furthermore, without local cooling, many are forced to sell their goods immediately, regardless of the market price.
Cold chains offer a solution to the twin challenges of market mismatch and limited price realisation for farmers. Currently, cold storage capacity is unevenly distributed across India, with around 59% (21 Million Metric Tonnes) concentrated in just four states: Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, and Punjab. To bridge this gap, the state of Odisha has developed a series of initiatives with the aim of boosting agricultural cold storage, including a financial assistance scheme for cold room investments and support to revitalise stranded cooling assets across the state.
This project builds upon the growing policy focus on agri-cooling in Odisha and the proven success of the Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant (Your VCCA) initiative in the region, implemented since 2021 by BASE Foundation in collaboration with Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology. A pilot deployment of the project’s three components — Cooling-as-a-Service, Digitalisation, and Capacity Building, at a cold room in Rourkela, Odisha suggested that more accessible and affordable local cooling helped reduce the urgent sale of farm produce at low prices among farmers. Preliminary data showed spoilage dropping from 17 percent to a mere 4 percent while farmer incomes rose by nearly 30 percent. The goal of this new ‘Leveraging digitalisation to manage cold rooms at scale in India’ project, in partnership with GIZ India, is to scale the Your VCCA approach to a larger number of cold rooms in Odisha, and to test the impact of digitalisation for more efficient cold room operations across a large network of cold rooms.
BASE is partnering with Koel Fresh Private Limited to digitalise operations in at least 25 solar-powered cold storage units across the state of Odisha. Koel Fresh is an agri-clean tech ecosystem builder that brings together key actors—including financiers, technology providers, government bodies, and Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs). By aligning these stakeholders, the company enables the scalable and well-coordinated implementation of clean energy and post-harvest solutions, such as farm and market-gate solar-powered cold rooms.
To ensure long-term sustainability, Koel Fresh provides comprehensive training and handholding support to FPOs and Self-Help Groups (SHGs). This training covers the economic benefits of cooling, standard operating procedures for cold room management, and market-linkage strategies.
By bridging the initial capacity gap through this hands-on support, Koel Fresh ensures that these cooling facilities remain commercially viable and operationally independent long after the company’s direct intervention concludes. This decentralised approach ensures that farmers no longer need to travel vast distances to preserve their crops and creates a resilient network of cold rooms that serve the immediate needs of local communities.
The project lowers cooling adoption barriers through a flexible servitisation model. Farmers are released from the burden of purchasing expensive, high-quality equipment and instead access cooling through a Cooling-as-a-Service model, paying a nominal fee per crate per day. The integration of the free mobile app “Coldtivate” adds a key layer of intelligence. The application digitalises inventory management and uses advanced physics-based models to predict how many days of freshness remain for each crate in storage, allowing farmers to negotiate fairer prices and wait for the best market conditions.
Community engagement remains at the very core of this strategy. Local women-led SHGs and FPOs operate the cooling units, managing the daily operations and market linkage activities at the facilities, ensuring that the technology remains rooted in the needs of the community. In Odisha, cold rooms are typically owned and operated by cooperatives such as FPOs and SHGs with capital subsidy support from the government. Public support mechanisms, including upfront subsidies, empanelled vendors, prescribed technical standards, and vendor-covered maintenance during the initial years of operation, are designed to reduce the financial and technical risks associated with installation, early-stage equipment failures, and system stabilization. This enables cooperatives to focus on day-to-day operations and market engagement rather than high- risk capital and technology management.
In addition to these activities, BASE will update its web-based mapping tool with at least three Odisha-specific data-sets. This resource is designed to help identify and direct future investments toward the most opportune locations for cold rooms installation.
The project is set to significantly transform the agricultural sector in Odisha by digitalising at least 25 solar-powered cooling facilities. The initiative targets over 1,250 active users and plans training for 2,500 people statewide. Gender equity is a core principle, with a minimum of 50 percent female participation targeted. This commitment ensures that the benefits of modern technology are distributed throughout the entire community.
The initiative targets a 20 percent reduction in post-harvest losses, which results in boosting farmer revenues by a similar margin. Participating SHGs and FPOs are expected to see their own revenues generated from cold room operations rise by 30 percent thanks to the introduction of Coldtivate for more efficient management. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by half through reduced spoilage and the use of solar-powered technologies is a key objective, demonstrating the vital environmental impact of transitioning to sustainable technology.
This project is conducted in the framework of the Indo-German Green and Sustainable Development Partnership. It was commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and is implemented by the BASE Foundation and Koel Fresh in partnership with the “Solar in Rural Area” module of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
