Accra, May 16, GNA - The Institute of Industrial Research (IIR) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on Tuesday signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) in Accra with two scientific related institutions to design an oil palm processing plant. IRI signed the MOU with Ghana Regional Appropriate Technology Industrial Service (GRATIS) Foundation and the Department of the Agricultural Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

Dr Essel Benjamin Hagan, Director of IIR, Mr John Eluerkeh, General Manager in-charge of Business Development and Training, GRATIS and Dr Nicholas Kyei-Baffour, Head, Department of the Agricultural Engineering, KNUST, signed for their respective institutions. The first part of the memorandum, which was between all three institutions, would see the design and prototyping of a 20-ton per hour oil palm processing plant to support the President's Special Initiative (PSI) on Oil Palm.

The second part signed between GRATIS Foundation and IIR was on an agreement for Technical Co-operation that would enable the two to undertake joint research and development for specified products and technologies of national relevance to support the modernization and competitiveness of small and medium scale enterprises. Dr Hagan said the resolve to pool rich resources of engineering knowledge was aimed at harnessing the research, design and technological development capabilities to achieve efficient delivery and quality in local machine fabrication and minimize duplication of effort in services.

He said the move was also a resolve of the Institute to make significant contributions towards the objectives of the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy II, particularly in the development and transfer of proven technologies in the design and local manufacture of machines.

He said the three institutions would, as an initial step, pool resources internally to kick-start the project and later call for external support from the Government, PSI programme and UNIDO, all of which had expressed interest in the collaborations. In a speech read for Mr Kwabena Dankyi Darfoor, Chief Executive Officer of GRATIS by Mr Eluerkeh, he said the collaboration started between 2004 and 2005 where the three decided to come together under a UNIDO scheme to develop a high capacity palm oil processing plant. He said UNIDO therefore linked the three technical institutions with three Swedish design and research engineers for the purpose for a six-month period from which a technical investigation and equipment specifications was completed and presented in 2005 by the project team. Dr Kyei-Baffour stressed the importance of making agriculture more attractive to people, especially, the youth by removing all the stress associated with farming. He expressed the hope that the collaboration between the three would help in addressing some of the hurdles in farming, particularly in palm cultivation. The design and prototyping of the oil palm processing plant would take about one year. 16 May 06