Growing rural economies by linking them to better markets

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The energy access field has broadened to include renewably-powered and efficient assets that are helping people in poverty improve their incomes. Smallholder farmers operate in rural areas, where grid electricity is often absent or weak. The combination of renewable energy and productive appliances can unlock profits for those farmers. But serving this market is different from selling a solar lantern or home system to a regular household: The equipment alone is not enough. As Lighting Global found, “a whole set of value chain issues, which vary in severity by country and crop, prevent farmers from being able to reap the full benefits of productive appliances.”

To address these needs, as part of our Pioneer Energy Investment Initiative Plus (PEII+), Acumen has recently closed follow-on investments into two of our most exciting portfolio companies: Promethean and S4S. Both companies (operating in India) are selling productive assets that benefit farmers, and both have taken the extra, essential step of providing farmers with a market for their produce.



Promethean’s weak grid refrigeration for dairy farmers
Promethean Power Systems designs and manufactures refrigeration systems for agricultural use in partially electrified areas. They began by selling bulk milk chillers to large dairies in India’s highly centralized dairy industry, which serve as aggregators for the milk from rural dairy farmers. The quality of milk is directly proportional to the time it takes for it to be chilled. After a short time, milk kept at room temperature is no longer suitable for premium products like yogurt; after six hours, it spoils completely. Promethean’s milk chillers aimed to address this challenge.

However, the company saw that the savings created by better refrigeration at these dairies were not being passed on to the majority of smallholder farmers. Many still lived too far away from the dairies, receiving australia whatsapp number data lower prices for lower quality milk — or in extreme cases seeing their milk spoil before it could find a market.

“Distributed and decentralized milk chilling is ideal and necessary for all stakeholders,” said Jiten Ghelani, CEO of Promethean. “The challenge was, who was most likely to make that investment on a larger-scale basis?”

Promethean is stepping into this gap. Using a technical assistance grant from Acumen, the company developed a micro-chiller model that is affordable, can operate in weak-grid environments, and chills up to six 40-liter milk cans per day. Promethean then partnered with village-level entrepreneurs and farming cooperatives to establish chilling hubs in strategic locations. These entrepreneurs will purchase the micro-chiller and use it to provide market access to their community.

This approach is increasing the number of smallholder farmers who have access to a formal, transparent market for their dairy products, giving them an opportunity for more sustainable livelihoods.