C7: Emphasizing Market Linkages for a Sustainable PURE Ecosystem: Learnings from South Asia

The session will explore the critical and emerging role of Productive Uses of Renewable Energy (PURE) within agricultural value chains. Supporting off-grid solar customers to create market linkages will be a game-changer for the success of off-grid solar agri-tech. While solar irrigation, cooling and processing systems have the potential to increase yields, preserve produce and streamline agricultural processes, the benefits to income generation will only be optimised if farmers can access markets for their produce. Supporting customers to develop new, and better, market linkages is crucial for unlocking this impact. Boosting the incomes of consumers will also enable more farmers to buy or use productive use technologies and help off-grid companies to scale.  In this session, participants will learn about the latest market linkage innovations and initiatives in South Asia, and get insights into challenges, opportunities and best practise. The ecosystem can only be sustainable when all these factors are harmonized. Hence, the session will try to bring out the importance of each stakeholder, with a particular emphasis on the crucial role of market linkages. Forward market linkages will be highlighted as essential for creating a sustainable ecosystem.