Buying Time at the Farm Gate: Two Pathways for Smallholder Postharvest Cooling

Buying Time at the Farm Gate presents a practical, evidence-gated framework for testing whether crop-appropriate postharvest cooling can create additional marketable time and improve smallholder farmer choice and net income. It compares two delivery architectures: (A) a fixed modular farm-gate cooling hub and (B) a circulating-cold service using validated pre-cooling followed by insulated crates and conditioned ice or phase-change plates for holding and transport. Version 3.0 defines the recommended B1 configuration and experimental B2 variant, models thermal load and fleet turnaround, compares full-system lifecycle economics, and provides a staged pilot protocol covering sanitation, custody, market access, repairability, replacement planning, and preregistered evidence gates. This is an open concept white paper and pilot framework. It does not claim that any particular product, site, crop protocol, or business model has been commercially validated. It is not an engineering certification, food-safety approval, legal opinion, or investment prospectus.