The government’s prohibition of the distribution of Lithovit liquid fertilizer to farmers is feared to have caused some 7000 liters of the product stocked at the Cocoa Health and Extention Division (CHED) warehouse in the Assin District of the Central region to go to waste, an Accra High Court was told.

He said before retiring from the CHED Assin Fosu District office, the majority of the bottles containing the liquid fertilizer were leaking, hence cannot guarantee if there were any left. Mr Adigreh stated that although the farmers were in constant demand of Lithovit liquid fertilizer, their request could not be met due to the embargo.

According to him, farmers went as far as chasing the extension officers for the supply of the product on radio, particularly during the phone-in segments on agronomical practice. Mr Adigreh added that the farmers who were demanding Lithovit liquid fertilizer said they had used the agrochemical from 2014 till its supply was stalled, and it increased their yield astronomically.

On that conviction, he said it was unfortunate for the Attorney General to claim that Lithovit Liquid Fertiliser was useless. He testified before the court presided over by Justice Clemence Honyenuga that farmers saw substantial revenue growth, due to the bumper cocoa harvest that resulted from the use of Lithovit liquid fertilizer.

It was his testimony before the Accra High Court that Lithovit liquid fertilizer rather increased cocoa farmers’ yield and income, ass farmers who used Lithovit liquid fertilizer on their farms life changed since some of them said they were able to buy vehicles and put up buildings during the period.

Therefore, he held that it cannot be said that the procurement of Lithovit liquid fertilizer cost financial loss to the Republic of Ghana.

Mr. Adigreh said this while being led to give his evidence in chief as the fifth defense witness (DW5) by Samuel Codjoe, counsel for Dr. Stephen Kwabena Opuni, the first accused person (A1) in the trial of the cocoa-related offense.

He, however, could not speak to the accusation that COCOBOD was defrauded under its former Chief Executive (CE) Dr. Opuni to allocate US$65, 200, 000 for the purchase of Lithovit liquid fertilizer.

The witness explained that CHED, under which he worked for 29 years, is not involved in the purchasing of the inputs, adding “ours is to see to the usage of the inputs, and therefore, I cannot say anything about it.”

Nonetheless, he stated that it was also unfortunate for the former Deputy CE Quality and Agronomy Control (A&QC), Dr. Yaw Adu Ampomah to say Lithovit Liquid Fertiliser was not good.

“He (Dr. Adu Ampomah) is not on the ground. He is not in contact with our farmers. In that, as I already mentioned, my own observation of farms sprayed at Assin Fosu in 2014/2015, testimony by some of these farmers both at Adabokrom, and our own CHED management team report in 2015, all expressed praises for the usage of Lithovit liquid fertilizer.”

The defense counsel put the question: “The prosecution tendered Exhibit H, and Exhibit H is about a report on the investigation of the malpractices in the testing of chemicals in the chemistry department at the University of Ghana. Their first recommendation on page 9 of their report is that the sample of Lithovit they examined showed that the amount of Lithovit was very small and so there should be an investigation before its use. What do you say to this recommendation?”

The witness answered: “My Lord, I will like to say that I was not there before this sample was tested but upon my own observation about the farms sprayed with Lithovit, testimonies from farmers who used Lithovit on their farms, and the report from my CHED management team in 2015, I can confidently say that this was not the Lithovit cocoa board supplied to us that was tested.”