For the few Nigerians who have realised that self-employment is the quick solution to the problem of unemployment in Nigeria, they have started creating jobs for themselves through animal farming without waiting for the government of the day to provide one for them, even when they could not get assess to N200 billion agric loan.

*Onebunne with grasscutters

Many started with personal savings. Mr. Prince Arinze Onebunne is one of the few Nigerians who launched into grasscutter farming in order to make a living.

He solicits that government should provide enabling environment for the jobless youths and students even retirees to go into grasscutter farming and by so doing reduce unemployment rate in Nigeria which is the root cause of political, economical, social, religious instability in the country.

Prinze Arinze Onebunne is the Managing Consultant/Chief Executive Officer of Jovana Farms.

How he started grasscutter farming

When I discovered that somebody can make a living from grasscutter farming I launched into it 15 years ago and today I’m not regretting it. Most importantly I can’t suffer unemployment.

Agriculture seems to be the antidote of the Nigeria’s economic challenges if government provide enduring environment. That is what we need.

Grasscutter farming does not require millions of naira before you cultivate it. With N50,000 anybody can start it. All you need is some practical trainings on how to handle them and you start reaping it.

*Baby grasscutters

A family of a grasscutter comprises one male and four females which is referred to as a colony or breeding stock. Each colony is sold for N30,000 – N40, 000. So, because they are reared in cages you can get a cage at the rate N5, 000 from the roadside carpenters who construct them. The cages can occupy any available space.

One secret about grasscutter farming:

It is advisable to buy them at tender age like four months old, that is the breeding stock stage. If you buy them and rear for four months, they will start having babies at eight months and you start making profit.

It is more economical because you do not buy food for them unlike you do in fish, poultry and Pig farming etc, reason is that they feed on grass. One female grasscutter can give birth to five or eight litters (babies) at a period.

I have witnessed one give birth to12 at once in my farm. If at the end of the day the four females give you five litters each, you are having 20 litters. Grasscutters are easy and very cheap to rear and their excreta does not carry odour.

An undergraduate or the unemployed can start with the amount mentioned above and before you know it he or she has started making profits. If you do not have a place to expand, you can start selling the babies. I think it is the cheapest livestock to rear.

And I tell you the return on investment is high and fast as people have now come to appreciate the monetary and nutritional values associated with grasscutters that they want to engage in it.

“Patronage is equally high as we have constant demands from Hotels, eateries, beer palours, restaurants, and the likes. It is a special meat, white meat, unlike the cow meat that is red. It does not have high cholesterol, in most cases doctors recommend it to people who have heart conditions, and the demand is high.

Challenges

People find it difficult to get the right breeding stock, but I am happy to tell you that in Jovana Farms, which I own, we have high quality breeding animals you can start your grasscutter business with.

The first challenge I am faced with involves technicalities. What this means is that people need to go for proper practical training before venturing into the grasscutter business.

Some people who started the business without practical training have already shut down for lack of appropriate training. They did it as a hobby, and at the end of the day, abandoned the business because of one mistake or the other.

Getting your supply…

When I started grasscutter farming 15 years ago, I got my first stock from Gabon and I started developing them myself, and developed the criteria for identifying the right species, right wards, grouping them according to their species and compiling their data.

Today, I do not look for grasscutter again, I already have them in my farm and people come for supplies.

We also have for sale fast growing species of grasscutter breeding families, antelope breeders, snail breeders, fish fingerlings and juveniles. As a result of high demands for grasscutters, we at Jovana Farms organize training seminars for those who want to start grasscutter farming.