Post by Ismail AbdulAzeez on May 4, 2021 16:13:09 GMT 1
Grasscutter Farming Business In Nigeria: How To Start And Profit From It – Part 1
Grasscutter is not new to most adults in Nigeria and other West African countries. It can even be rightly claimed that the meat is consumed in other African countries too.
I do not subscribe to the opinion molders who say that it is because of lack of major sources of protein that people have resorted to eating bush meat. No, the people of Nigeria and other African countries have been eating bush meat from time immemorial.
Bush meat is a delicacy enjoyed by the people for a very long time. Bush meat commands special position in the culinary space of many top hotels and restaurants in Nigeria.
Grasscutters belong to the rodent family, and closely related to porcupine, except that porcupine is bigger than Grasscutter in size.
When fully matured Grasscutters can reach length of about 72cm.
As a matter of fact, in the cities, bush meat is for the privileged class. The meat is expensive, and not for anybody that is not loaded with cash.
From research, many people are interested in knowing how to start Grasscutter farming business.
Grasscutter is also known as cane rat. This is the main reason why we of this forum have decided to start a series on Grasscutter farming business. This is part one of the series of articles on Grasscutter business.
We are going to discuss everything about Grasscutter farming business, starting from beginning to the end. Everything you need to know in order to be successful will be revealed to you.
The botanical name of Grasscutter is Thryonomys Swinderianus. You can also call it, Cane rat of Grass Cutter;French speaking West African Countries know it as Agouti; our brothers in Central Africa call it Hedgehogs. All are acceptable names for this animal.
Though they have been widely hunted in Africa in the time past, they can now be domesticated like other livestock animals such as rabbit.
Before we continue, let us look at some characteristics of Grasscutters:
Grasscutters are calm and peaceful animals, with average or little movement.
They can easily grow rapidly under intensive conditions.
They become sexually active at maturity which is between 5-6 months.
They can reproduce and give birth to as much as 12 young ones at a time.
Grass cutter’s meat is rich in protein and other nutrients.
Farming Grasscutter is economically viable as you can source all you need to rear it locally.
You can easily rear the animal; therefore there is no need for poaching them from the wild forest.
How to start farming Grasscutter
This is one of the animals in Africa that is extremely profitable to rear on a commercial basis. A lot of people in the villages are rearing them and bringing them to the big cities to sell as if they were poached from the wild forests. No, they reared them in their compounds in their various villages.
The best way to rear Grasscutters is to rear them under the intensive system. This means that you have to keep the animals in cages called pens, kept under a safe shade. You must take adequate care in selecting where to keep the animal if you want to be successful in the business.
The pens must be free from flood, and easily accessible to the farm attendants.
The pens must be well ventilated for cross passage of fresh air; secured and available sources of good feed and fresh water must be provided.
Though the objective of the rearing business will determine the size of the pen to house the animals; However the standard is that a family of Grasscutter comprising of one adult male and four adult females should be provided a space of about 1.6-2.0 square metres.
Reproduction in Grasscutters
We need to understand some important facts about reproduction of Grasscutters, and they are as follows:
Sexual Maturity: Male Grasscutters mature within a time frame of 8 months and the females mature in 6-7 months.
Body Weight: The matured male Grasscutter has a body weight of about 2.5 kg while the female has a minimum body weight of about 1.8kg.
Sex Ratio: One male Grasscutter can service 4-10 female Grasscutters.
Ovulation: Matured Female Grasscutters start ovulation on sighting a male counterpart.
Gestation Period: The matured female carries a pregnancy for about 152 days – a little above 5 months.
Number of litters per annum: Matured female Grasscutters have their young ones twice in a year.
Number of young per litter: They usually have about 3-12 young ones per litter.
Suckling Period: The young ones suck for about 40 days before being weaned.
You can see from the general introduction of Grasscutter farming that it is surely a good and fun business to start.
This is the first part of this series; we will continue the second part soon. Be on the lookout and start thinking and planning about the business.
We are going to do the feasibility planning of the business also.
Please stay with us, it is going to be epic; we will continue with how to construct the pen (the cages where your Grasscutters will be reared), feeding, mating, pregnancy test, etc.
Be expectant.
Grasscutter is not new to most adults in Nigeria and other West African countries. It can even be rightly claimed that the meat is consumed in other African countries too.
I do not subscribe to the opinion molders who say that it is because of lack of major sources of protein that people have resorted to eating bush meat. No, the people of Nigeria and other African countries have been eating bush meat from time immemorial.
Bush meat is a delicacy enjoyed by the people for a very long time. Bush meat commands special position in the culinary space of many top hotels and restaurants in Nigeria.
Grasscutters belong to the rodent family, and closely related to porcupine, except that porcupine is bigger than Grasscutter in size.
When fully matured Grasscutters can reach length of about 72cm.
As a matter of fact, in the cities, bush meat is for the privileged class. The meat is expensive, and not for anybody that is not loaded with cash.
From research, many people are interested in knowing how to start Grasscutter farming business.
Grasscutter is also known as cane rat. This is the main reason why we of this forum have decided to start a series on Grasscutter farming business. This is part one of the series of articles on Grasscutter business.
We are going to discuss everything about Grasscutter farming business, starting from beginning to the end. Everything you need to know in order to be successful will be revealed to you.
The botanical name of Grasscutter is Thryonomys Swinderianus. You can also call it, Cane rat of Grass Cutter;French speaking West African Countries know it as Agouti; our brothers in Central Africa call it Hedgehogs. All are acceptable names for this animal.
Though they have been widely hunted in Africa in the time past, they can now be domesticated like other livestock animals such as rabbit.
Before we continue, let us look at some characteristics of Grasscutters:
Grasscutters are calm and peaceful animals, with average or little movement.
They can easily grow rapidly under intensive conditions.
They become sexually active at maturity which is between 5-6 months.
They can reproduce and give birth to as much as 12 young ones at a time.
Grass cutter’s meat is rich in protein and other nutrients.
Farming Grasscutter is economically viable as you can source all you need to rear it locally.
You can easily rear the animal; therefore there is no need for poaching them from the wild forest.
How to start farming Grasscutter
This is one of the animals in Africa that is extremely profitable to rear on a commercial basis. A lot of people in the villages are rearing them and bringing them to the big cities to sell as if they were poached from the wild forests. No, they reared them in their compounds in their various villages.
The best way to rear Grasscutters is to rear them under the intensive system. This means that you have to keep the animals in cages called pens, kept under a safe shade. You must take adequate care in selecting where to keep the animal if you want to be successful in the business.
The pens must be free from flood, and easily accessible to the farm attendants.
The pens must be well ventilated for cross passage of fresh air; secured and available sources of good feed and fresh water must be provided.
Though the objective of the rearing business will determine the size of the pen to house the animals; However the standard is that a family of Grasscutter comprising of one adult male and four adult females should be provided a space of about 1.6-2.0 square metres.
Reproduction in Grasscutters
We need to understand some important facts about reproduction of Grasscutters, and they are as follows:
Sexual Maturity: Male Grasscutters mature within a time frame of 8 months and the females mature in 6-7 months.
Body Weight: The matured male Grasscutter has a body weight of about 2.5 kg while the female has a minimum body weight of about 1.8kg.
Sex Ratio: One male Grasscutter can service 4-10 female Grasscutters.
Ovulation: Matured Female Grasscutters start ovulation on sighting a male counterpart.
Gestation Period: The matured female carries a pregnancy for about 152 days – a little above 5 months.
Number of litters per annum: Matured female Grasscutters have their young ones twice in a year.
Number of young per litter: They usually have about 3-12 young ones per litter.
Suckling Period: The young ones suck for about 40 days before being weaned.
You can see from the general introduction of Grasscutter farming that it is surely a good and fun business to start.
This is the first part of this series; we will continue the second part soon. Be on the lookout and start thinking and planning about the business.
We are going to do the feasibility planning of the business also.
Please stay with us, it is going to be epic; we will continue with how to construct the pen (the cages where your Grasscutters will be reared), feeding, mating, pregnancy test, etc.
Be expectant.