Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

Food losses amount to roughly US$ 310 billion in developing countries. Estimates from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Bank show that up to 47 per cent of the $940 billion needed to eradicate hunger in sub-Saharan Africa by 2050 will be required for the post-harvest system. Fruits and vegetables, dairy products and tubers have the highest loss rates of any food in developing countries at 45-50% occurring at post-harvest and processing levels mainly at early stages of the food value chain and can be traced back to constraints in harvesting techniques as well as lack of storage and cooling facilities. Temperature control is the most important factor in reducing postharvest losses for fresh produce.

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How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

Reduces GHGs (e.g., projects that reduce sources of GHGs, such as through efficiency or other changes in consumption)

Best Estimate of GHG Avoidance/Reduction of This Project (Tonnes CO2 Equivalent/Year):

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

Solar Freeze is pioneering an innovative business model to enable more women to own and operate the solar powered cold storage units as independent micro-franchisee entrepreneurs in the rural areas, through a "Hubs and Spokes" model.
Women Micro- franchisee
Through a Hubs and Spokes model rural women will receive training to own and operate the solar powered cold storage units in their communities; Here's how it will work; Hubs
First, we own and operate best practice solar powered cold storage hub centers that provide quality food preservation & storage services for smallholder farmers in rural areas.
These centers are designed to be best-practice models for the community, providing smallholder farmers with all the renewable energy building blocks they need to thrive.

Spokes
Using our hub centers as a model, Solar Freeze has launched a social-franchising program to support local women (who we call our Mamapreneurs) with training, resources & on-going mentorship to start or grow their own quality solar powered cold storage micro-business (or spoke ).
Spokes are visited weekly by a Spokes Outreach Officer who provides ongoing mentorship & quality assurance on food preservation and safety.
Our solutions uniqueness is adopting a micro franchise model concept and integrating this model with village youth and women agents in transforming rural agriculture and farmers to increase their agribusiness efficiency making them more happy and prosperous while contributing more to ending youth and women unemployment, tackling environmental issues, food security and malnutrition in Kenya and Africa.

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Mission Statement:

Solar Freeze operates in Kenya and offers a very scalable and replicable model to combat post-harvest loss and provide sustainable clean fuel to many sub-Saharan house holds living at the bottom of the pyramid. Already Solar Freeze is in testing its innovation in Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Rwanda and Ethiopia proving that its innovative approach offers a viable solution in developing countries we have plans to expand to 17 countries by 2020.