Solar‐powered cold‐storage and agrifood market modernization in Nigeria
研究了尼日利亚东北部七个市场安装小型太阳能冷藏库的效果，发现其显著提高了农产品销量和收入，减少了食物损失，延长了保质期，并提升了价格。
Abstract Modern cooling technologies that utilize renewable energy sources have been increasingly recognized as promising tools to address various challenges emerging in progressively complex agrifood systems in developing countries. Knowledge gaps about the actual impacts of these technologies in developing countries remain, especially in Africa south of the Sahara (SSA). This study fills this knowledge gap by providing evidence from the evaluation of recent interventions in northeast Nigeria in which seven small solar‐powered cold storages were installed across seven horticulture markets. Combinations of difference‐in‐difference (DID) and variants of propensity‐score‐based methods suggest that cold storage significantly increased horticulture sales volumes and revenues of market agents. Back‐of‐the‐envelope calculations indicate that increased net revenues for market agents may be sufficiently large to recoup cold storage investments and operating costs within a reasonable time frame. Using cold storage also reduced the share of food loss. It lengthened the products' shelf‐life while raising prices received by market agents and farmers, which were associated with improved product quality, expanded value‐adding activities by market agents, and increased use of advance payments.