(From right to left) Benguet Governor Melchor D. Diclas, DA – Cordillera Administrative Region Regional Technical Director for operations Danilo Daguio, Mankayan Mayor Dario Banario, Manpat-A Farmers Association president Basilio Ngaseo Jr., AEV vice president for transformation Dea Franko Csuba, and Hedcor president and COO Rolando Pacquiao show the first crates of vegetables to be stored in Fresh Depot’s cold storage unit in Mankayan,
The Aboitiz Group launched on Wednesday Fresh Depot, touted as the first physical and digital solutions platform to help farmers reduce harvest waste while optimizing crop yield, in Benguet province.
In a statement, the listed conglomerate said the first phase of Fresh Depot involves a modular and sustainable cold storage unit located in Mankayan town.
Fresh Depot is working with Mankayan’s Manpat-A Farmers Association for the first pilot site of its cold storage unit.
The second phase of Fresh Depot entails digitizing information on farmers’ land, planting practices, pre-harvest and harvest.
“Digitization will allow Fresh Depot to offer advisory services, explore market linkage opportunities and financial inclusion programs, as well as build a database of information that the government can utilize for their agricultural programs,” it added.
Aboitiz collaborated with international agritech players Ecozen Solutions Pvt. Ltd., backed by Nuveen global impact fund USA; and EXIM Bank of Government of India and Cropin Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd., supported by Impact Assets Singapore.
Ecozen manufactured the modular hybrid cold storage unit called Ecofrost, which features climate-smart deep technology to harness solar energy to power the unit.
Cropin provided farm monitoring services and communications solutions connecting farmers, agri-businesses and field officers.
The pilot, which will run for three to six months, will serve as a case study for a possible scale-up, according to Aboitiz.
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Cold storage facilities in every barangay pushed