Kickstart of the Potato Cold Chain Project – A Community Approach

Indicold kick started an endeavour to approach the potato value chain ecosystem with a community mindset. In this endeavour, the company is looking to envolve all stakeholders from early stages to formulate a model which will help in creating value as well as a sustainable business for all stakeholders.

In this endeavor, the company has reached out to the students of the following colleges through college whatsapp groups and community groups.

1. NIFTEM
2. Amity University, Noida
3. CIPHET
4. Tejpur University
5. SHUATS
6. and other colleges / universities are being reached out.

We at INDICOLD believe that the true potential of existing infrastructure which has been created across India especially in the Potato Cold Chain space is severally underutilised. We envision to change this landscape in the next year and bring about a community approach to the cold storage infrastructures in rural areas.

Each cold storage will offer, the following services.

1. Cold Storage Services
2. Microfinance Loans
3. Satellite Imagery for Farmers to take better decisions in regards to fertilizer usage and farming techniques to be deployed on a fortnightly basis.
4. Fertilizers at better prices
5. Seeds at better prices
6. Training Classes from Experts
7. Farmers will get the freedom to choose from a number of Agricultural apps in the ecosystem (primarily ensuring that the farmer is able to safeguard and own his data).
8. IOT devices for those who want to go hitech.
9. Data Analytics and demand forecasting for those farmers who want to not follow the herd.
10. Market linkages at the cold storage level.
11. Availability / booking of cost effective farm implements on hire.
12. Sorting / Grading and Packaging as per market specifications.
13. Soil Testing and Analysis using the latest techniques.
14. Dissipation of government information from the cold storage in terms of notices and reports shared on a fortnightly basis.
15. Demarcation / provision of space in the cold room for storage of house bulk material by families in the cold storage for food security if required.
16. And more.

All the above are some of the things that we can do. Probably, we might be able to implement some and some it may take time. The idea is to change the way a cold storage is viewed at the village level. It is more of a community center / engagement center / a critical support infrastructure rather than just being a warehouse.

We have decided to focus on Potato, because

1. Benefits of a cold storage are widely known
2. Already the cold storages are quite interlinked into their local landscape because of financing of crops stored at the store.
3. A lot of new age technology like satellite imagery is quite accurate for Potato crops and will bring in true savings for the farmers.

Hoping to work with our partners to create a win-win model across the spectrum.

(This activity was closed in 2020)