Reducing post-harvest losses with a new solar refrigeration technology in Africa

Every year, about 30% of the world’s food production is lost or wasted (FAO). These losses represent 4.4 Gt of C02 equivalent per year and 1.4 billion hectares of land that are used to produce a lost crop. The FAO estimates that nearly 14% of this food is lost between the post-harvest and retail stages.

Still according to the FAO, these losses are particularly high on the African continent where they reach 37% of production and are estimated at 48 billion dollars. They have a particularly negative impact on smallholders farmers, who lose 40 to 60% of their production in the post-harvest phase and are forced to sell at low prices to reduce losses in the absence of effective and accessible storage facilities.

A 1% reduction in post-harvest losses could bring gains of $40 million per year according to a World Bank survey, and most of these benefits would accrue directly to small farmers.

The innovation proposed by the startup BMTA&C aims to reduce post-harvest losses and increase farm income for small farms. It is based on a solar refrigeration technology capable of extending the life of crops from 2 to 20 days on average, and affordable thanks to a pay-as-you-go business model. The solution integrates a platform that allows to use the service remotely, even in areas without internet access: crops can thus be stored more easily, rather than lost.

FID’s funding will allow BMTA&C to create a prototype of the proposed solution and to start deploying it in Togo and Côte d’Ivoire as part of the prefiguration work.

The proposed solution aims to reduce post-harvest losses and thus generate an increase in the income of small-scale farmers through the valorization of the saved production.

The results of the prefiguration mission will allow BMTA&C to observe the reliability and impact of the proposed solution with a view to developing an optimal solution that can be tested under real conditions in a pilot phase.