The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) College of Science and Technology (CCST) has announced plans to start a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) courses and two new programmes at the Master’s level.
The Master’s programmes, which will start from the 2022-2023 academic year, would be Master of Sustainable Food Crop Production and Master of Material Science, Construction and Transportation Engineering.
The courses will be hosted by the CSIR-Savannah Agriculture Research (SARI) at Nyankpala, Tamale and the CSIR-Building and Road Research Institute (BBRI) at Fumesua, near Kumasi respectively.
Professor Mark Appiah, President of CCST, who announced these at the graduation ceremony at Kwadaso near Kumasi, said the College was poised to deepen the research activities and contribute significantly to national development.
He said the College had initiated several flagship programmes to achieve these targets.
He cited for instance that, the Department of Agro-Processing and Food Biosciences in Accra, was researching into the effects of fermented dairy products on the functionality and quality characteristics of chocolate produced using soy milk powder as a dairy milk substitute.
The benefits of the research, according to Prof Appiah, would ensure the utilization of locally-produced raw material (soybean) in the production of chocolates.
This will reduce Ghana’s burden on imported raw materials, reduce cost of production and ensure adequate income for soybean farmers.
Nutritionally, plant based milk products are considered better than dairy ones in terms of health benefits, and can help address health associated issues including lactose intolerance and high cholesterol as well as lifestyle issues like vegetarianism.
Prof Appiah giving the background of the study said Ghana was the world’s second largest producer of cocoa and the main ingredient used in the production of chocolate.
However, other ingredients for chocolates such as sugar and dairy milk were mainly imported, and that was why the College was probing to get a cost efficient way of accessing raw materials.
