Evaporative Cooling for Fruit & Vegetable Storage: A Guide to Assembling, Using, and Maintaining Clay Pot Coolers

MIT D-Lab, the World Vegetable Center, and Institut d'Economie Rurale (IER) have developed this guide in order to disseminate information about this simple, low-cost technology that uses the principle of evaporative cooling to provide improved storage for fruits and vegetables. By improving vegetable shelf life, clay pot coolers have great potential to reduce food losses, improve nutrition, and allow households to save time and money. The guide, now available in French and English, covers the following aspects:

• How evaporative cooling works
• Importance of proper fruit and vegetable storage 
• Types of clay pot coolers and how to assemble them
• Fruit and vegetable compatibility
• Best practices for using clay pot coolers

This guide is the centerpiece of an ongoing training program funded by the Innovation, Technology, & Research Hub at USAID and the Islamic Development Bank in the Mopti region of Mali. Additional information can be found here: https://d-lab.mit.edu/clay-pot-coolers.