Project to solve malnutrition launched
A project which seeks to solve malnutrition associated with the lack of consumption of milk and other dairy products has been launched at the University of Ghana in Accra.
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The project is dubbed “Dairy for Improved Maternal and Child Nutrition – A formative and feasibility assessment of opportunities for strengthening dairy value chains in Ghana for improved maternal and child dairy nutrition outcomes.”
Funding
It is being funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Department for International Development (DFID) in collaboration with Family and Consumer Sciences, Nutrition and Food Science, Institute of Applied Science and Technology and Office of Research, Innovation and Development.
Aims and Objectives
Addressing participants in the launch, the acting Provost of the College of Basic Applied Science and Dean of the School of Agriculture at the University of Ghana, Prof. John Ofosu-Anim, said the aim of the project was to understand the barriers and facilitators to milk and dairy consumption among women of reproductive age (18-49) and young children under five in the Greater Accra and Eastern regions.
Barriers
The Principal Investigator on the project, Dr Nii Lante Amissah, outlined some determinants of the barriers and facilitators.
Some of these, he said, were dairy production and the need for women’s participation and opportunities for livelihood diversification in the dairy production value chain.
He also underscored the sensory properties and microbiological quality of milk and their influence on consumer demand and the consumption of dairy products by reproductive women and children, as one of the determinants of the project.
Participants in the launch expressed optimism about the success of the project and looked forward to the findings.
