Today’s Agribusiness

Farming in Nigeria has taken a dramatic turn to better directions in recent years, creating jobs and opportunities for entrepreneurs who dare to go into the farming business.

Millionaires are made every year through farming in Nigeria and there is simply no end to the prospects of creating more wealth in Nigerian farms in the coming years.

There are good reasons why farming in Nigeria is currently doing well, and understanding these reasons will help any serious entrepreneur (no matter where he comes from) to think seriously about setting up farms in Nigeria.

There isn’t any other African country where farming is as viable as it should be in Nigeria in terms of productivity and profitability. And there is no other country where farmers are more advantaged as they are in Nigeria today because Nigeria has a huge population of over 200 million people, twice more than the populations of Zimbabwe and South Africa combined.

The entire population of Nigeria depends on staple foods produced from farms and other farm produces for their daily meals and sustenance.

Over 20 million jobs can be created through agro/allied business ventures such as farming fish, snails, goat, grasscutter, vegetables, food processing which is still a virgin business venture, but the mad rush for oil money has led to the utter neglect of this lucrative agricultural enterprise.

Another challenge that needs to be addressed urgently is the issue of farmers/herdsmen clash, bandits and kidnapping.

Grasscutter farming, though a relatively new undertaking in livestock farming, is a very lucrative venture. Commercial farming of grasscutter may appear as classy as manufacturing or being in the financial service sector, but it holds great promises and a tremendous reward.

Grasscutters (a rodent family), like many rodent species, have been and continue to be a delicacy in a number of countries, in Latin America, Africa and Asia where markets exist for a wide variety of rodent species for consumption, grasscutters are often preferred over other sources of meat.

And this offers small-scale farmers, investors, businessmen and all those with a wealth-mind set, an economic incentive for raising grasscutters in a confined area.

Among all the livestock farming, grasscutter is the cheapest to farm because they feed only on grasses and nuts, for an optimum result you can add supplements. You can start this agro-business venture in your backyard as low as N80,000 which has the capacity to turn into multi-millionaire business venture within a space of three years if well managed.

Requirements for commercial grasscutter farming

Grasscutter breeding stock: This is made up of 1male and 4 female which called colony i.e. a set of breeding stock. A serious and dedicated farmer can have up to 50 families at a time i.e. 10 sets of breeding stock.

Housing: This housing depends on the individual; one can rent land outside the home or at your backyard, in a cage, hutches, and cage-hutch or even in a room provided it is well ventilated. The pens (cages and hutches) are best if located in stable to protect them from theft, rain and predators such as man, snake etc. For the cage you can use iron/wire mesh, a hutch is the combination of cement or mud block and iron/wire mesh, the iron mesh is used as a door.

Feeding: Grasscutters are mainly herbivorous animals which feed on various specific forages with succulent stalks, they show a high preference for grass and particularly Pennisetum purpureum (elephant grass) and Panicum maximum, they consume nuts, bark and soft parts of grasses and shrubs and roots and tubers. You can as well added food supplements for maximum result.

Breeding of grasscutter

Grasscutters gestation periods are usually between 152 days – 160 days approximately 5 months. In other words, it can breed two times in a year with about 4-6 newborn at a time and can be matured for breeding or sales at 6months for female and 8 months for male depending on the feeding. on a farm of 100 families of grasscutter, you can get about 1000 to 1200 grasscutter in a year.

Marketing

You can market your animals locally or internationally depending on your connections in the industry. Locally, it is in higher demand among families because of the zero cholesterol level.  Joints use it to prepare pepper soup, suya, frozen or dried meat.

Most Chinese are looking for grasscutter meat as a regular meal and also to entertain most of their guests from abroad. If you rear grasscutter in commercial quantity under good hygienic condition, fast food restaurants and supper stores will be your regular customers. They will only need your assurance of regular supply per week.

For manuals and more information on farming grasscutter contact us via <learnder@gmail.com>.

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