Page 44 - Tata-Trusts-Annual-Report-2021-22
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BEST PRACTICES Tata Trusts-led India Climate Collaborative (ICC) launched
a pilot project to foster greater resilience and
• Knowledge creation – Defining climate research agenda sustainability in the cold storage infrastructure used in the
and commissioning foundational research and unified farming sector in Odisha. The project involved a
metrics to drive action in India. collaboration with the SELCO Foundation to pilot three
innovative, community-level Decentralised Renewable
• Technical assistance and expertise - Synthesising priority Energy (DRE)-based cold storage projects, which
expertise gaps in the sector. demonstrated the impact of these solutions on
horticulture-practicing communities. A marked increase
• Building partnerships and networks - Building a in farming incomes and a reduction in post-harvest losses
connected ecosystem of all climate actors to improve reflected the success of the project.
decision-making and foster greater collective
investments and partnerships. “As climate change picks up speed, ICC has acted as a
beacon of hope for numerous stakeholders, be it
• Developing sectoral and individual leadership - business or civil society. ICC is helping propel India
Encouraging philanthropies and influential individuals to towards balanced development and growth, without
engage in policy advocacy in India and on a global scale. compromising on either. SELCO has collaborated with
ICC to showcase models that synergise agriculture with
sustainable energy to benefit cold storage chain
Designing scalable business models capacity, proving that poverty eradication solutions
for clean energy-based cold
storage solutions that balance social and environmental sustainability are
possible,” says Dr Harish Hande, founder and chief
As the planet warms at an unprecedented pace, posing executive, SELCO Foundation.
a grave risk to global food security, the need to develop
Scaling such solutions to benefit other farming
eco-friendly solutions to counter the far-reaching
communities is also essential for reducing the carbon
impacts of climate change has never been more urgent.
footprint of conventional technologies used in the
Farming communities in Odisha have demonstrated the
sector. Currently, there are many barriers to doing
strong potential of scaling clean energy-based
so, such as high upfront costs, farmer’s access
solutions into agricultural practices.
to financing, and poor market linkages. The
Rising temperatures have serious Trusts have therefore commissioned a
implications for the agriculture sector, comprehensive and one-of-its kind study
where cooling underpins the ability of to assess cooling needs at a cluster level
millions of farmers to practice horticulture, and to design a community-based
floriculture, and dairy business model framework that can
farming. In India, inadequate Women farmers replicate these solutions to scale, across
storing their
access to farm-level cold produce in the cold clusters and agricultural value chains. Data
storage facilities results in a storage facility collected during the study will form the basis of a
high proportion of post- blueprint for a new Tata Trusts initiative aimed at
harvest agricultural losses, adversely a ecting catalysing and improving access to a ordable
farming incomes. DRE-based cooling infrastructure.
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