COGAI fights for AF Confidence

A group calling itself Confederation of Governance Assessment Institute (COGAI) has ignored a directive by the Ghana Cocoa Board and the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) that asked cocoa farmers to disregard A.F. Confidence, an organic insecticide/fertilizer.

According to Isaac Rockson, Executive Secretary of COGAI, the product manufactured by New Okaff Industries Limited passed several tests at the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) and also in South Africa.

“Up till now, there is no known viable, verified and certified organic cocoa spraying product like A.F. Confidence approved by the Ghana Standard Board and tested twice outside the Ghana, Rockson said.

According to the group, the historic discovery for Ghana was as a result of over 30 years of research by a Ghanaian professor whose name was withheld for security reasons.

“This is just but one example of a discovery that can transform the economic fortunes of this country positively but I don’t understand why CRIG wants to undermine the intelligence of a professor who has spent over 30 years researching into an organic product which cannot be found anywhere in this world,” Rockson quizzed.

The statement from CRIG which was circulated to several media houses indicated their test had revealed that A.F. Confidence contained Chlopyrifos and Lamda-cyhalothrin, active ingredients which were banned molecules for use on cocoa internationally.

It further stated that the continuous supply and use of the product will create problems for Ghana’s cocoa on the international market. But COGAI insisted that the act by CRIG was a deliberate and typical African sabotage, which will not help economic growth of our country.

Documents available to CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE indicate that tests conducted in South Africa cleared the product of any residue. But the CRIG insist the product is not organic. Isaac Rockson also stated that some farmers in the farming communities had also attested to the potency of A.F. Confidence.

COGAI claimed they conducted several investigations into the product, adding, “When we used A.F. Confidence on similar fishes, they never died which clearly means that the product was clearly an organic product which does not have any side effects.