African farmers to gain from $2 billion cold storage facilities

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The public-private initiative dubbed ‘one million tons of cold storage’ was unveiled in Kigali during the ongoing World Economic Forum on Africa.
Agra and UPL said they will set up the post-harvest storage facilities across sub-Saharan Africa within the next ten years for potatoes and other perishable produce including fruits and vegetables.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) in partnership with Indian-based agrochemical maker UPL Limited Wednesday launched a $2 billion cold storage project to address challenges of post-harvest losses for potato farmers in the continent.

The public-private initiative dubbed ‘one million tons of cold storage’ was unveiled in Kigali during the ongoing World Economic Forum on Africa. Poor storage of farm produce accounts for 40 per cent of food losses in Africa.

Agra and UPL said they will set up the post-harvest storage facilities across sub-Saharan Africa within the next ten years for potatoes and other perishable produce including fruits and vegetables.

“With these cooling and storage facilities in place, there will be value addition on agricultural produce,” Jai Shroff, UPL chief executive said, adding that: “There is enough market in Africa itself. Connecting smallholder farmers to value chains is the missing link; in this initiative we shall bring farmers together to increase productivity”.

Dr Agnes Kalibata, Agra’s president said the project will enable farmers to benefit from improved incomes.

“The initiative will allow farmers to decide on when they need to put their produce on the market and have a greater negotiating power for greater incomes,” said Dr Kalibata.

Currently, construction of three cold storage facilities in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda is ongoing and is expected to be fully operational by 2017.

The initiative aims to reach 15 million farmers over the next decade with a target of impacting 100 million people.