Government has introduced a new farmer-ownership scheme called the Corporate Village Enterprise (COVE) Model to bring rural communities into mainstream economic activity.

Under COVE, large-scale export-oriented enterprises would be established and owned by farmers but professionals would do their management with industrial experience on performance contract basis.

President John Kufuor announced this when he launched two "Presidential Special Initiatives (PSI)" in Accra. The initiatives are the Integrated Action Programme for Cassava Starch Production and Export and the Export Action Programme for Garments and Textiles in Ghana.

Under the first one, about 25,000 farmers from 10 selected districts would be identified and assisted technically and financially to grow and process cassava into high-grade industrial starch. These could be used in the paper, textile, food, pharmaceutical, oil drilling and petrochemical industries while two by-products, pulp and juice could be used as cattle fodder and fertiliser.

President Kufuor said cassava was chosen because over 90 per cent of Ghanaian farmers cultivate cassava either as a main crop or in combination with other crops and it also accounts for about 22 per cent of the country's agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

"It is easy to cultivate compared to other major crops and its production is highly labour-intensive with a high potential for job creation." he added. He said currently, the volume of cassava production in Ghana is over eight million metric tonnes annually and this could be easily doubled, however, the major constraint in expanding the production base is the absence of guaranteed markets. "The key to address this constraint is to add value by processing it into industrial starch."

President Kufuor said the Garments and Textiles sector was selected because of the expected contribution of the sector to export revenue generation as well as the enormous potential for job creation.

He said it is expected to create 70,000 jobs and about 3.4 billion dollars in export revenue would be generated over a four-year period based on the country's ability to take advantage of the new United States Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

To realise this vision, the President said an Export Roundtable of key service providers in the export sector has been established to provide for selected entrepreneurs and enterprises extensive support, ranging from credit facilitation, market identification, product development, production management assistance and quality assurance. He said the implementation of the second initiative would involve three platforms to be developed concurrently.

The first would target and attract at least 10 large-scale garments and textiles, manufacturing firms from Asia, USA and Europe to re-locate in Ghana. The second platform, would involve building the capacity of at least 100 Ghanaian enterprises to establish and operate medium-scale manufacturing plants for garments.

The third platform would assist at least 20 Ghanaian entrepreneurs to become merchant exporters of garments and each of them would work with at least 50 small-scale tailors and seamstresses through sub-contracting.

These strategies, President Kufuor said, would give the government the critical supply mass to enable Ghana become a significant player in the world garment and textile trade.

President Kufuor said his desire to pursue these two ventures was to give a new lease of life to the vulnerable and disadvantaged in the society while it re-energised the country's economy to give real meaning to the positive change pledge of the government.

He announced that an Inter-Ministerial Facilitation Team made up of Ministers of State has been constituted to co-ordinate all the support interventions required from the various sector ministries and government agencies to ensure the success of the two initiatives.

Mr. Alfred Sallia Fawundu, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Representative in Ghana said his outfit has pledged 68,000 dollars in securing technical expertise both locally and internally to start the implementation of the initiatives and would bring other development partners to join the programme.

The Secretary-General of the TUC Kwasi Adu-Amankwaa, called on the government to recognise the need to apply international labour standards to ensure adequate protection for labour.

He said the TUC would contribute to create conditions under which labour would be hired to work in the garment and textiles sector and such conditions should be made decent and fairness should prevail.

Mr. Adu-Amankwaa said the TUC would make available the experiences of the General Agricultural Workers Union in organising the rural workers and farmers in the Cassava Starch Production.