Mr Francis Cyril Attu Asiedu, who retired from the Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) of Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) as the Kade District Extension Officer, has told Justice Aboagye Tandoh’s court that the only complaint he had from a farmer about Lithovit fertiliser was that it produced too much yield and, thus, he had to spend most of his time on the farm because of the bumper harvest as a result of his application of the fertiliser to his farm.

“I remember at the farmer’s rally, a farmer said his only problem was all the time he had to be harvesting because of the yield,” Mr Asiedu told the court on 22 October 2022 while being led in his evidence-in-chief by Mr Benson Nutsukpui, lead counsel for businessman Seidu Agongo and his company Agricult, who are the second and third accused persons, respectively, in the ongoing trial concerning the financial loss of GHS217 million caused to the state as a result of the procurement of the fertiliser under Dr Stephen Opuni – the first accused person – who was at the time CEO of Cocobod.

Asked by Mr Nutsukpui what the farmer perception was about the use of Lithovit fertiliser in the Kade District, where he superintended and owned a five-acre demonstration farm, Mr Asiedu responded: “The farmers liked Lithovit,” adding: “They used them and even requested for more but we do not use only farmers’ perception in assessing our impact.”

He said apart from farmer perception, “We use extension officers’ reports and my own observation from the field.”

About whether he ever received “any adverse report from the farmers on Lithovit,” as an extension coordinator, Mr Asiedu answered: “No.”

He also described as “false”, a claim by a prosecution witness that Lithovit fertiliser was drinkable as water.

“In our education, we talked about chemicals and their effect on human life.  I remember we educated them [farmers] and used Akomadan tomato farmers [as an example] and the story from there is [that] after mixing it [fertiliser], they were tasting with their fingers to test the efficacy and within a short time most of them were impotent.”

He told the court that in the case of Lithovit fertiliser, the farmers wanted more. “The report and observations of the extension officers as captured in our report, I can sum it up that the farmers were craving for more because of the yield.”

Mr Asiedu added that none of his extension officers at the district level reported any adverse findings about Lithovit.

On his observations, Mr Asiedu said: “When you observe a farm with an agricultural eye, you see the flowering pattern, pod formation and then subsequently or finally the yield and it was so widespread most of all the farms and not just one farm and we are able to tell the yield and that informed us to do crop forecasting.”

“Lithovit has increased our yield and that can be seen in the cocoa output during those years,” he asserted, stressing: “Lithovit is a good fertiliser.”

The witness, who told the court he also used Lithovit on his five-acre farm, recalled: “I observed flowers were stable, cocoa trees shed a lot of flowers but with the use of Lithovit they were stable.  Pods were bigger, therefore, the yield was more.”

He noted that cocoa trees shed “a lot of flowers but with the use of Lithovit, I saw that it was better; the shedding was not as much as it used to be.”

Asked if the shedding of flowers is good for cocoa trees, he responded: “It is known that cocoa trees cannot use all the flowers to bear pods, so, naturally they shed some but when there is excessive shedding then there is a problem. The flowers were pollinated to produce pods.”

DW8's TESTIMONY ALIGNS WITH OTHERS'

In May 2022, a cocoa farmer, Samuel Torbi, the second defence witness for Dr Opuni, told the court that it was not true that farmers drank Lithovit fertiliser in place of water because it was a substandard agrochemical.

”No my Lord, because the training they took us through means any agrochemicals we spray on our cocoa, when it enters our bodies, it will give us problems and, so, when we are spraying any insecticides or liquid fertiliser, we put on gloves, we also wear nose masks, we wear spectacles and we put on overalls and wellington boots and, so, if anyone tells you that you can drink Lithovit liquid fertiliser when you are thirsty then that person is not a farmer and no farmer will say such a thing”, he told the court on Monday, 16 May 2022. In February 2022, Dr Yaw Adu-Ampomah, the third prosecution witness in the trial named some farmers, who, according to him, drank the liquid fertiliser. They included Nana Obeng Akrofi, the Eastern Regional Chief Farmer of the Cocoa, Coffee and Shea Farmers Association of Ghana and one Emmanuel Obeng.

Dr Adu-Ampomah said: “Nana Akrofi came to me to complain that the Lithovit fertiliser was so ineffective and when they go to the farm and there is no water, they can drink it.”

However, Mr Torbi told the court presided over by now-retired Justice Clemence Honyenuga, that: “My Lord, that will not be true because even a junior officer at the CHED office at the district will not say that let alone an officer at the head office”. 

He also said Lithovit liquid fertiliser was the “farmer’s messiah” since it gave them plentiful yield.

The Assin Fosu farmer in the Central Region, who said he was born into cocoa farming but has been doing it commercially for 17 years, told the court that he first used Lithovit in the 2015/2016 crop season.

He said Cocobod directly introduced and distributed the fertiliser to the farmers and not Agricult Company Limited.

Mr Torbi told the court that he and other farmers were trained on Lithovit by CHED under Cocobod in Assin Fosu and not Agricult who they “don’t know”.

He said he harvested the “highest” yield in the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 crop seasons all due to the use of Lithovit liquid fertiliser.

After those two crop seasons, he said he has not harvested yields close to that quantum again.

In his view, Lithovit fertiliser was what made the difference in yield in the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 crop seasons and not any other factors.

He said Lithovit liquid fertiliser “widens” the leaves of the trees, gives them a “pure green” look and makes the flowers “very strong” so that they do not fall off when using the mist blower to spray fertiliser on them as the other fertilisers do.

“That makes the Lithovit liquid fertiliser different from other fertilisers and makes cocoa grow very well. That was why we, the farmers, were happy with the Lithovit liquid fertiliser”, he told the court.

As the chairman of the cocoa farmers’ cooperative in Assin Fosu for 12 years, he said, “When I used it, it made me happy and I did not get any negative effects about it”.

He also said, “Nobody complained to me but rather the happiness I had was the same happiness they [other farmers] also had and they said that it is now that they have believed that if they say that cocoa farming is a business, Lithovit liquid fertiliser has made them realise that.”

He noted that all the farmers in his cooperative were happy with the Lithovit fertiliser. “My Lord, when we meet the only effect they talk about is Lithovit liquid fertiliser makes cocoa grow very well and brings about more yield so all our farmers are crying about whether we could get the Lithovit liquid fertiliser for them”.

Asked what he made of claims that the fertiliser was of no value, he said: “Farmers will never forgive that person because Lithovit liquid fertiliser is a farmers’ messiah and I also don’t believe that any staff from Cocobod will come out and say such a thing”.

Asked if there would be any justification to condemn the company or the person who brought the fertiliser, Mr Torbi said: “No, my Lord because we need it”.

Dr Opuni and Mr Agongo are facing 27 charges, including defrauding by false pretences, wilfully causing financial loss to the state, money laundering, corruption by public officers and acting in contravention of the Public Procurement Act.

They have pleaded not guilty and have each been granted a GH¢300,000 self-recognisance bail by the court.