Literature Review on Social Opportunities for the Solar Cold Chain System in India-An Exploratory Study

Abstract

India is amongst the prime producers of nutritious horticultural produces, spices, poultry, fruits,dairy, vegetables, fish and meat in the world. Cold chain system provides care and protection tothe products in transit from the source to end user with standardised storage, distribution andinventory facilities. The operation of the cold chain system is limited to the temperature sensitivityof the perishable, bio medical, pharmaceutical and chemical products. The Cold Chain Managementis based on the Product Life of the fresh and processed food products. Cold chain system is integratedthrough static and mobile infrastructure, service standards and protocol and skilled resources. The coldstorage is used to preserve both fresh and processed food items. Cold chain increases the holding lifeof the produce and increase opportunities to the producers to reach more customers in the market. Thispaper addresses the knowledge gap based on the review of literature on the areas connected to cold supplychain to suggest opportunities for the inception of solar cold chain system in India.