The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are rightly ambitious. Adopted by world leaders in 2015, the SDGs seek to transform hundreds of millions of lives for the better by 2030.
The role of women and the benefits for them are a cross-cutting theme across many of the SDGs, including goal 2 (“Zero hunger”) which is of particular interest to us at Dearman.
As McKinsey point out, more than 60% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa is smallholder farmers. Yet Africa’s full agricultural potential remains untapped and one element of that is tackling post-harvest food loss, which could see an additional output of 50 million tons of cereal and coarse-grain across the continent. Dearman’s project in South Africa looks at this post-harvest stage.
We are designing a mobile pre-cooling system powered by our groundbreaking liquid nitrogen engine. Crucially, the Dearman system would be clean, in stark contrast to dirty diesel systems that pollute the air we breathe. The Dearman pre-cooler is due to be trialled later this year in both the UK and South Africa.
We estimate that deploying just 250 Dearman pre-coolers in South Africa would be enough to process the 350,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetable wasted during post-harvest handling and storage. Across the African continent the fruit and vegetables pre-cooling market is estimated to be worth £730 million.
How could this particularly benefit women? According to UN Women, in nearly two-thirds of countries, women are more likely than men to report food insecurity. The UN also estimates that there are 564 million female farmers across the world, and that 43% of the agricultural labour force in developing countries is female. Not having equal access to land, credit, technology or markets leaves many women on the margins of subsistence agriculture.
An innovative agri-tech project like Dearman’s could economically empower South African women farmers who would benefit from using our pre-cooler. Increasing retained harvests will enable them to access wider markets, boost their incomes and raise living standards. Getting to ‘zero hunger’ by 2030 is an ambitious goal with wide-ranging benefits for women and girls, and it’s a goal that we at Dearman are determined to play our part in helping to achieve.
Louise Alter
Commercial Analyst
Dearman zero emission Transport Refrigeration
The Dearman Transport Refrigeration Unit is the first to meet all environmental challenges – and set new industry performance standards – all without having to compromise on cost.
