Many Indian farmers struggle to sell their annual harvest before it’s destroyed by heat. Now, the government is making it easier by installing a 10-tonne solar-powered cold storage unit near the village of Khawzawl.
According to Reuters, the cold-storage unit uses ice battery technology that converts water into ice in six hours using solar energy. This means the farmers can store their harvest and sell it later for five times the price they normally get.
India has thousands of these cold storage facilities — above 8,000. But, they are connected to the electricity grid and not powered by solar.“About 40% of food produced in India is wasted at the cost of billions of dollars per year, the United Nations has estimated. But it’s not just an economic issue. Food waste accounts for about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a U.N. report launched at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt which said sustainable cold chains can play a major role in tackling “the climate and food crises.”
This will cut the country’s carbon emissions and double the farmer’s profits.
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