University of Birmingham, Haryana to create centre of excellence in state to boost crop post harvest management

• The agreement builds on the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-chain (ACES) .
• The UK and UN Environment technical assistance programme is funded by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
• Conventional cooling technologies are highly polluting due to climate impact of refrigerants .

The University of Birmingham and Haryana have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop a centre of excellence in the state to boost crop post harvest management and sustainable cold chains, the varsity has said in a statement.

The decision to create Haryana Centre of Excellence was taken at the Global summit organised by the Centre for Sustainable Cooling in Birmingham on Tuesday, giving it the mandate to conduct state-of-the-art applied research and provide capacity building and training, an innovation and business hub and technology testing/demonstration centre.

"The Haryana Centre of Excellence will conduct state-of-the-art applied research and provide capacity building and training, an innovation and business hub and technology testing/demonstration centre. It will connect experts, investors, agri-food business, farmer cooperatives, and energy or logistics providers to deliver sustainable cooling," the statement from the University of Birmingham, which hosted the summit, said.

The agreement builds on the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-chain (ACES) developed with the Government of Rwanda and UN Environment Programme at the University of Rwanda.

It also follows an MoU signed earlier this year with the Indian State of Telangana for a Telangana Centre of Excellence. The UK and UN Environment technical assistance programme is funded by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Present on the occasion, Jai Parkash Dalal, Haryana's minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, said: "The UK-Haryana Centre for post-harvest & cold chain will be a big leap towards developing and demonstrating post-harvest technologies that will enhance the shelf life of perishable produce. The Centre will not only cater needs of farmers but also researchers and entrepreneurs".

Approximately 60 per cent of food should be refrigerated at some point in the food supply chain - a number which will only increase as countries look to meet UN Sustainable Development Goals, feed a fast-growing population and adapt to a warming world and fast degrading environment.

Caroline Rowett, the British Deputy High Commissioner, Chandigarh, said that centre of excellence will help improve the functionality and efficiency of the farm to fork supply.

"This is an excellent opportunity for them to work together to develop and showcase technology to help improve the functionality and efficiency of the 'farm to fork' supply chain. Farmers will have the tools to improve the storage and transportation of their produce to ensure it reaches the consumer in perfect condition," she said.

Lack of effective refrigeration results in the loss of 526 million tons of food produced (12 per cent of the global total) with developing countries refrigerating less than 20 per cent of their production.

These food losses result in an estimated 1 gigaton of CO2-eq emissions each year globally, in addition to wasting agricultural inputs such as land, fertilisers, water and energy.

Equally, 25 per cent of vaccines reach their destination with degraded efficacy mainly due to failures within the cold-chains; 20 per cent of temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical products are damaged due to broken cold-chains.

Conventional cooling technologies are highly polluting due to climate impact of refrigerants (HFCs) and indirect emissions from energy use.

They account for 7 per cent of all global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and these emissions could double by 2030, and triple by 2100.

Toby Peters, CSC Director and Professor of Cold Economy at the University of Birmingham and Heriot-Watt University, said: "We must now figure out how to provide the globally connected cold-chains for a well-functioning society in an efficient, affordable, equitable and sustainable manner".

"Temperature-controlled supply chains networks are complex, requiring coordination across multiple stakeholders countries and continents. We need to understand the interplay with renewable energy, climate friendly refrigerants," he said.

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