In early 2025, a group of about 20 vegetable farmers in Lari, central Kenya, were losing much of what they grew.

A little over a year later, their cooperative counts more than 240 members, farm-gate prices have risen by more than half, and post-harvest losses are falling toward single digits.

The difference is a community-level cold-chain, and a model its backers believe can be replicated across the continent.

That model is the SPOKE Programme, an initiative of the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chain (ACES).

At a webinar reviewing its first year of implementation, farmers, researchers, government agencies and development partners made the case for scaling it up, and crucially, for financing it as a viable business rather than a grant-dependent project.

Prof. Toby Peters, Executive Director of ACES, described SPOKE as a mechanism to accelerate the adoption of resilient, climate-friendly cold-chain systems while reducing food loss and strengthening rural livelihoods.

"This initiative was conceived to increase and accelerate the adoption and uptake of resilient, efficient, inclusive, and climate-friendly cooling and cold-chain systems," said Prof. Toby Peters.

"A key activity is the development of new community-based business models that better create and equitably deliver shared value, and that can serve as a unifying force to help communities become more resilient to future external shocks and stresses."

A model built to be financed, not just funded

SPOKE is designed to avoid the reduce food loss. Rather than leading with hardware, it builds the community and the business case first, and brings in equipment only once demand is proven.

The programme is delivered in three phases: engagement and selection; building a resilient cold-chain community ecosystem; and a "try before you buy” phase, explained Dr Catherine Kilelu of the Africa Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), the in-country partner leading delivery in Kenya.

It begins with an open call. In Kenya, around 20 community-based organisations applied, mainly cooperatives and farmer-linked aggregators, and five progressed through due diligence.

Those communities then went through training and business assessment covering post-harvest losses, market access, governance and investment readiness, alongside capacity-building on cooperative leadership and market systems. The model also integrates solar-powered cold-chain systems, logistics and real-time telemetry to monitor performance.

From the five, one community advanced to the final "try before you buy” phase, in which cold-chain infrastructure is deployed and run under real market conditions.

"At this stage, the cold-chain solution is deployed within the community, allowing members to test and operate the system as a live business,” Kilelu said.

That phase is where SPOKE turns evidence into something a financier can act on. Data from live operation is used to refine the model and prove its commercial viability, with the goal of producing bankable business cases capable of attracting long-term investment.

"The goal is to demonstrate that sustainable cooling can be integrated into a viable business model that improves incomes, strengthens market access, and builds cooperative sustainability,” she added.

The proof: what changed in Lari

In Lari, that case is already taking shape. Founded in early 2025 with about 20 farmers, the cooperative now has more than 240 members, around half of them women. Average farm-gate prices have risen by more than 50 per cent, and for some crops, doubled or tripled.

Cabbages that once sold for around 20 Kenyan shillings at the farm gate now fetch up to 60 shillings per kilo when aggregated and routed through the cold-chain to higher-value buyers. Post-harvest losses, once around 40 per cent, are falling toward single digits.

Crucially for would-be investors, the cooperative is now backed by audited financial records and a bankable operating model, and is demonstrating a strong case for transitioning to a permanent Community Cooling Hub through concessional financing.

For Zachary Ndung’u Kibiri, a Kenyan farmer and Chairman of the Lari Horticultural Farmers’ Cooperative Society, the change is visible on the ground.

"We have some farmers who have been able to reduce post-harvest losses to about, or even below, 20 per cent. We also expect to reduce this further,” he said.

He said guaranteed market access has removed the uncertainty that long held farmers back, encouraging them to expand the land under cultivation.

"As a farmer myself, I used to cultivate a very small piece of land. I was later encouraged to expand production and even consider greenhouse farming because I am now confident that I can sell what I produce,” he noted.

That confidence is changing how farmers invest. Stable markets have improved access to credit, "this also gives me confidence that whenever I expand, I can secure a loan from the bank,” he said, while the cooperative is deepening member ownership, with each farmer contributing 1,000 shillings a year in shares.

One of its most consistent producers, growing cabbages, carrots and potatoes, now earns more than 300,000 Kenyan shillings a month, he said.

Farmers are also receiving technical support, soil testing, pest and disease management and guidance on safe pesticide use, alongside a growing shift toward organic production to meet higher-value market expectations.

From one community to a continent

The lessons from Lari are now being applied to a second community as the model expands.

Doreen Irungu, Chief Executive Officer of Ustawi Afrika, a grassroots organisation working with marginalised farming communities in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid regions, said the initiative is already helping reduce post-harvest losses, and that her organisation has broadened its work to include water harvesting, solar-powered irrigation and cold-chain logistics.

Ustawi works with around 6,000 farmers across counties including Meru, Nyeri, Isiolo and Laikipia, with the cold-chain pilot currently serving its first group of farmers.

Under the SPOKE design, in-country partners such as the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) and Ustawi lead local implementation, ensuring solutions fit each context, the mechanism ACES intends to use to flow knowledge, training and support to new markets across the continent.

For ACES, Lari is a proof of concept for a far larger ambition.

Prof. Toby Peters has described the centre as "born in Rwanda, pan-Africa in vision,” and used the webinar to invite governments, financiers and development partners to help take the model to scale.

"I’m confident we can grow it with other partners.” — Prof. Toby Peters

ACES will set out how communities, cooperatives, companies and governments can establish their own SPOKE at the next webinar in the series on June 24.