Dysmus Kisilu

Solar Freeze is pioneering potable cold storage units powered by solar energy for rural smallholder farmers of perishable produce. The solution uses the “sharing economy”, an economic model in which individuals are able to borrow or rent assets (solar-powered cold rooms) owned by someone else. Solar Freeze is using the sharing economy model to bring down the price of cold storage which is a particularly high asset to own by making it cheap and accessible to farmers. Smallholder farmers through their mobile phones request and are connected to access the potable solar-powered cold storage units through sending simple SMS, USSD and Voice messages where they pay via mobile money transactions a fee of between US$0.2cents to $0.5 cents for the use of the renewable energy equipment for reduce agricultural post-harvest loss. This innovation extends the freshness of fruits, vegetables and other perishable food from 2 days to more than 40 days.