Innovative cool box made from banana fibers: Help for Ugandan small farmers!

Innovative cool box made from banana fibers: Help for Ugandan small farmers!

On August 11, 2025, the BioThermoBox team, consisting of students from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), won first place at EuroTeQaThon 2025. The group is developing a mobile cool box made of recycled banana fibers for small farmers in Uganda who suffer from the effects of heat and poor packaging and are therefore faced with significant crop losses. This innovative solution is created in collaboration with the Ugandan NGO Tukule Foundation and aims to improve the living conditions of local farmers.

As part of the project, the team conducted surveys with local stakeholders to identify the specific needs of smallholders. The BioThermoBox is intended to help you transport your products more efficiently and thereby minimize harvest losses. Participation in this competition, which is part of EuroTeQ Engineering University's Challenge Based Learning initiative, not only reflects the students' creative inventiveness, but also the importance of intercultural collaboration.

Innovations in the service of agriculture

TUM was not alone in the competition: a total of 16 teams took part in the collider phase, eight of which made it to the local finals. Another team, EnviroLink, was selected for an entrepreneurship bootcamp at the IESE Business School in Barcelona. The BRIQ and Mobility for Offliners teams also achieved success and reached the European final in Eindhoven. BRIQ is researching to develop an energy-efficient carbonizer that converts agricultural waste into biochar. Biochar is considered a valuable product because it improves soil quality, stores CO₂ and promotes sustainable charcoal production. Mobility for Offliners is also dedicated to the development of mobility solutions for seniors in Eching near Munich.

The commitment of these teams highlights the central role of small-scale agriculture in global food production. According to the organization Oxfam, small-scale agriculture can make a crucial contribution to improving food security and reducing poverty. However, to realize this potential, it is necessary for governments and companies to develop policies that ensure smallholder farmers' access to resources such as land, water and technology and, in particular, support women in agriculture.

The challenges of the global food situation

The challenge that small farmers have to overcome is enormous. Around 820 million people worldwide suffer from hunger, while two billion people suffer from hidden hunger, which means that they get enough calories but not enough vitamins and trace elements. The majority of these hungry people live in rural areas and many are small farmers. A central question in this context remains: Can small farmers, who often do not even harvest enough for their own needs, feed the growing world population?

The opinions among experts are controversial. While some voices, such as economist Paul Collier, consider supporting small farmers to be unrealistic and recommend large farms in Africa instead, many others, including agricultural economist John Mellor, are positive about the small farm model. Mellor argued as early as 1961 that sustainable small-scale agriculture was essential to promote development. Historical and current examples from emerging countries illustrate how important agriculture is for increasing incomes and improving living conditions.

The challenge is to make small farmers a driver of global nutrition, rather than pushing them into a downward spiral of poverty. However, current projects and ideas, such as those from BioThermoBox, show that there are solutions that not only represent technological advances, but can also initiate social and economic changes.