Grasscutter Farm Business
The rate at which people consume bush meat these days has given rise to the increasing demand for grasscutter variously known as the marsh cane-rat, ground hog and in francophone West Africa the aulacode. Grasscutter meat is a delicacy that is served in big hotels and restaurants as well as some joints patronized by middle to high level people.
Depending on your experience, grasscutter can be packaged to outfits as pepper soup meat, suya, frozen or dried meat. Most Chinese are looking for the meat as 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 will be your regular customers. They will only need your assurance of regular supply per week. There is also good market for grasscutter meat in the international market if only you can do a good packaging. You can make millions of naira from this vast and inexhaustible market breeding this animal either on a part-time or full time basis.
Many who are into the business of grasscutter farming are unwilling to let others know about the farming methodology. The techniques are often shrouded in secrecy.
Importance Of Grasscutter Farming
· The demand for grasscutter meat is so large that it is not being met.
· They are easy and very cheap to raise.
· Gestation period of the grasscutter is about 154 days or five month
· Each female gives birth to an average of 5 to 12 offspring every 5 months. A serious and dedicated farmer can have close to 200 families at a time
· They command a very good selling price
· They are herbivorous animals, so they feed mostly on grass.
· It is a multimillionaire business, if one can take the courage of breeding them on commercial scale.
· It is a business venture that can be started on small scale with a space of less than one room.
· Source of income and employment: one can depend on grasscutter for his livelihood. In fact, grasscutter farming should create a job opportunities for urban and rural dwellers. The business of producing, processing, transporting, storing, financing and servicing grasscutter products should give employment to many people.
· You can conveniently earn income a thousand fold higher than your present earning. You can keep your present job and do this on part time.
· The meat has high carcass quality and protein is comparable to that of poultry.
· Grasscutters do not compete with man for food it feeds on some types of grass