Climate-resilient processing for smallholder value chains

Rural agro-processing in East Africa is disproportionately exposed to climate volatility — from erratic rainfall reshaping harvests to grid instability disrupting cold chains. Building resilience into small-scale processing is no longer optional.

Three pathways

We evaluated solar tunnel drying for mangoes and pineapples, low-energy batch pasteurisation for fruit juices, and circular use of processing residues for animal feed and biogas.

Field results

Combined, the three interventions reduced fossil energy use in participating processing units by 47% and cut post-harvest losses by a third — while opening a new revenue stream from what had been waste.