Kenya initiative paves the way for a more secure process cold chain

The free training in cold-chain and postharvest management was organised by the African Centre of Technology Studies (ACTS) which is partnered with Birmingham’s Centre for Sustainable Cooling, University of Birmingham and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Inadequate refrigeration technology and transportation is responsible for a massive proportion of foodstuffs and vaccines on the continent going to waste. The event in Kenya’s Kiambu County is intended to lead to the creation of a community hub to coordinate local approaches and sample the latest cold-chain technology.

The Community Cooling and Cold-chain event, in Kinale, was organised by the African Centre of Technology Studies (ACTS) which is partnering with the Centre for Sustainable Cooling, University of Birmingham and UNEP to set up the Clean Cooling Network Reference Community Cooling Hub (CCH) in Kiambu County. 

Further events will engage farmers in the programme over the next two months as the new Farmer Co-Operative - Lari Horticulture Co-operative Ltd. (LHCL) is established to build, own operate a demonstrator Community Cooling Hub.   LHCL will use the CCH to aggregate local production, structure connection to wider market access, and provide access to cooling technologies and logistics and improve post-harvest management through trainings.

The Open Day featured interactive demonstrations of various clean cooling technologies, including solar-powered pre-cooling and cold-storage and temperature-controlled refrigeration transport vehicles and solutions.

In addition to practical demonstrations, the Open Day served as a platform for discussions on the challenges farmers face regarding climate resilience, food security, nutrition and markets. Experts shared insights on the programme’s support, financing opportunities, and collaborative efforts to scale up sustainable cold-chain and market connectivity.

ACTS team lead Catherine Kilelu explained: “Farmers in Kiambu play a critical role in producing horticultural produce that is delivered across the country. However, lack of cold chain and collective action for aggregation marketing results in loss of over 40% of their production and contend with an unfair position in the market.”

So-called  “try before you buy” cold-chain facilities will be available for farmers to test for an extended period to the effectiveness of the technology  for protecting produce quality and extending their market reach lity.

The programme will provide a pilot before wider roll-out throughout the country , before seeking to extend the system across Africa, with the next phase to include Rwanda – where the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-chain is based – Lesotho and Senegal, representing countries in the centre, south and west of the continent.

Toby Peters, professor of clean cold at the University of Birmingham, who is the Centre for Sustainable Cooling programme lead, saidd: “This is a multi-year investment to build the necessary cold-chain system transformation pan-Africa to deliver inclusive, equitable and future-proofed cooling and cold-chain solutions with minimum environmental impact.

“Realisation of these goals will have major economic, social and environmental wins.  Building on our foundational work to develop the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-chain, the tools and training, it is very exciting to have our first outreach community programme go live.”

Pic: Nicholas Githiri