7-Reasons Why You Should Raise Grasscutters

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                                7-Reasons Why You Should Raise Grasscutters
There are many reasons for keeping and raising grasscutters. Not only are they friendly, but they will entertain you with their antics. In addition, the grasscutter will also eat up your kitchen vegetable waste; they can be exhibited and exported too!

Grasscutter farming is great if you have a space as small as a room, parking store or kitchen. They are very little trouble; they can get most or all of their food from eating grass. They are one of the most efficient bush-meat producers. In their wild state, grasscutters are one of the many creatures that practice polygamy. In domestication they’re more promiscuous.
(1) VERY CHEAP TO START
Grasscutter raising can be started with a wooden cage and one family of grasscutters breeders normally called a colony, is sold for N45,000 to N50,000 depending on the age and specie. A colony comprises one male and four females. The cage can be constructed at a cost of N10,000 by any roadside carpenter. The cages can be placed anywhere in the compound or even in the kitchen.
(2) FOR MEAT PRODUCTION
Raising grasscutters for meat production is ideal; they are fast growing rodents, live the longest and are also the toughest of all domesticated rodents. They reach a good weight with little supplement feeding and the most preferred bush meat. Male grasscutter on average reach a size up to 2-times larger than chicken meat. Additionally, they grow quickly and can be sold as a breeder at young age as of 12-weeks after a diet of primarily milk and pasture. This combination of cheap feed and fast maturation makes grasscutter profitable for those raising the rodent for market purposes. Another reason is that they are efficient converters of wide range of vegetables and grass matters into meat.

(3) FOR BREEDING STOCK PRODUCTION
This is one of the most lucrative aspects of grasscutter farming. The turnover period could be very short, maximum of 3-4 months after birth. Grasscutter breeding family comprising one male and four females referred to as a colony. This colony can produce between 50 and 56 more grasscutters in just one year if well managed. Imagine the financial gains!
(4) FOR EMPLOYMENT CREATION
The business of producing, processing, exporting, transporting, financing and servicing grasscutter products should give employment to many people. Rearing of grasscutter for local consumption will decrease importation of frozen meat, chicken, fish and turkey into the country and producing grasscutter for export will greatly enhance the economic potential. It will firm up the Naira, improve the GDP, reduce both inflation and create more jobs for Nigerians.
(5) FOR HIGH MULTIPLICATION
They can produce many litters. In this category, they are next to pigs and rabbits. A female grasscutter of good species can deliver up to 14 babies in a year. They have a rearing period of 24 to 26 weeks and they have a high rate of ailment resistance.
(6) FOR STEADY PROFIT
The best way I know to put good food on the table and more naira notes in your pocket without a large investment, is raising grasscutters. The profits can come in many ways. You can sell your grasscutters live or smoked to restaurants, the manure for fertilizer to horticulturists or for worm growing; even the breeding family of one-male and four-females can bring huge money.
(7) THE MARKET IS EVERYWHERE
Grasscutter meat is a delicacy. It is like hot cake in most restaurants. So, the easiest meat to market is grassutter. Even if you produce large quantity of grasscutter meat in Nigeria alone, you will find buyers for them easily. The meat has low cholesterol and is filled with health benefits. Nutritionists advise people to eat the tasty bush meat because it is white meat. In addition to these facts, grasscutter is free from cultural and religious taboos. This makes it to be a universal favourite, breaking all barriers, religion, creed, culture, ethnicity, etc.
Are you still playing the Thomas? If so, then you have a long waiting to do on the unemployment queue. Avoid writing hundreds, possibly thousands of job application where you “beg to apply” instead of settling down with this easy-to-start, profitable agribusiness that will help you build up your business capital, feed yourself and your family, get others employed and launch you en-route your financial freedom.

Benefits Of Geese Farming

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                                                     Benefits Of Geese Farming

If you really want to be a multi-billionaire, you cannot do it earning salaries. Dangote is not paid by anybody. Coscharis is not paid by anybody; they work for themselves. And in this clime there are so many persons that are working hard in spite of the situation we find ourselves. In Entrepreneurship Success Int’l Magazine (ESIM), we think that if we encourage the unemployed and farmers in activities that are very productive, those services that are required by even the oil companies, they will do much better. It is better to be in the agricultural sector because the potentials are here. The market is there too. So do not forget that the oil sector is employing few persons but the agricultural sector is going to provide a lot of opportunities and our strategies are pro-poor. So if you are talking of how many persons your intervention can pull at the same time; agriculture is just there for it.

In this fast paced world, people should get all the help they can in dealing with the sheer speed and harshness of everyday life. There have been a lot of ways discovered to cope with stress. Some watch movies all day during holiday; others listen to music, play and have fun with friends. While it may be true that all these are effective ways to cope with the everyday stress that we all are familiar to, there is still no denying the fact that activities involving nature remains the best practice. Breeding animals for therapy, such as geese, peacock, grasscutter and antelope is a wonderful way to explore this possibility.

Just like those who are passionate for gardening, people who have many years experience in keeping geese have always shared that the entire experience is a great therapy. From the moment they start laying eggs, up to the time the egg hatch, grow and become adults, there is something about geese that helps stressed out people to relax. So if you are among the millions of people who need a break from the world’s break neck speed, you should consider raising geese as your stress getaway.

Geese are, however, the most rapid growing, have the longest commercial life and are the hardiest of all domesticated bird. They are good foragers, reaching a marketable weight with little supplementary feeding and can practically raise themselves. Geese adapt easily to different climates, its not surprising that these robust waterfowl were probably one of the first animals domesticated by man. In fact, geese are the popular bird during Christmas time in Europe. It’s only in Africa that the raising of geese have not been exploited commercially as much as chickens or turkeys.

Geese possess terrific eyesight, good memories, and raucous voices; attributes that makes for excellent sentinels. What most Nigerians don’t know is that geese are very cheap and easy to maintain and they provide animal protein as well as cash income. Your geese probably won’t make you affluent by laying about sixty eggs a year, but they can earn their keep by supplying the following farm products and services that will surely bring in millions of naira:

(1) INFERTILE EGGS: Huge, good for catering, scrambling and baking, try marketing extras to bakery and fast food restaurants.

(2) MEAT: Higher protein contents, succulent, richer, palatable, and more tender than turkey and chicken. Provide a rich food source for an often-hungry populace

(3) FEATHERS/DOWN: Valuable for comfy pillows and light, insulating comforters and for other upholstery uses

(4) WEEDING/GRASS TRIMMING: Once used to weed a variety of crops, geese are again becoming popular weeders as organic method catch on (they fertilize the soil, too).

(5) TOURISM: Geese are animal of unique feature and this makes the animal tradable for tourist uses. The big versatile rare-waterfowl have been valued highly-even considered indispensable.

(6) SECURITY GUARD: Geese make ideal “watchdogs”, they are unbridable guard animals.

(7) FERTILIZED EGGS/BREEDING STOCK: If you raise purebreds, crossbreds or rare breeds, you can usually get a pretty good price for them, depending on your area of the country. At JOVANA FARMS, we have prolific breeds available for sale at N100,000 for 2-males and 3-females of 10-months old point-of-lay.

(8) PEST CONTROL: Chicken and turkey farmers keep geese to ward off poultry-eating predators. Rural dwellers like the way they gobble down diseases-carrying ticks, cockroaches, grasshoppers, and small snakes.

Geese farming is a trendy kind of “agribusiness”, intending farmers can start out small with 2-males and 3-females while still holding down a full-time job elsewhere. In many ways geese farming is the perfect moonlighting business that can generate huge income. The geese farming industry is still an underestimated type of poultry in Nigeria. But it has a large sustainable market for its many products and uses.

FG Eyes N24bn Revenue from Groundnut Pyramids

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 FG Eyes N24bn Revenue from Groundnut Pyramids

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has said Nigeria will return to massive production and processing of groundnut pyramids, noting that the production would add N24 billion to the country’s  Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Adesina said this while launching the Groundnut Value Chain yesterday in Abuja.
The minister noted  that Nigeria was the largest producer of groundnut globally before the advent of crude oil, adding that his ministry  would ensure  the revival of  the long dead groundnut pyramid in the northern part of Nigeria.
According to him, “When Nigeria found oil, it abandoned agriculture in general and groundnut production suffered. Nigeria’s exports of shelled groundnuts plummeted from 502,000 MT in 1961 to 291,000 MT in 1970 and zero by 1980. The groundnut pyramids disappeared. “
He also said the groundnut value chain would produce additional 120,000 metric tons of groundnut grains, which, according to him, is valued at N24 billion.
“The groundnut value chain will produce an additional 120,000 metric tons of groundnut grains valued at N24 billion (US$ 155 million) and supplied to small, medium and large scale processors. This is part of our mandate to improve agricultural productivity in Nigeria and restore the nation’s past glory in farming,” he said.
Adesina added that “a significant part of our economy in the 1960s revolved around groundnut pyramids in the northern Nigeria. Nigeria at the time was the largest producer of groundnut, with a market share of over four per cent of shelled groundnut globally.”
He however said the discovery of oil led to the disappearance of the groundnut pyramid in the northern Nigeria.
Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, said objective of the groundnut value chain was to increase production, processing and marketing of groundnut along the value chain in the country.
The project is targeted at covering 1.8 million farmers and would be implemented directly in 15 states  including Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, and Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Gombe, Kebbi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara.

BOA, Farmers To Cultivate 300 Hectares of Cassava in Edo

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BOA, Farmers To Cultivate 300 Hectares of Cassava in Edo

As part of Federal Government efforts to boost cassava production, about 135 farmers in four communities in Edo North Senatorial districts have concluded plans to access the sum of N35.250million from Bank of Agriculture (BOA).
BusinessDay reports that the programme which is federal government interventionist agency is being sponsored by the Bank of Agriculture (BOA).
The programme tagged, ‘BOA cassava mopping up programme’ is geared towards encouraging farmers to go into cassava production as well as creating existing markets for the farmers to dispose of their various products.
Abdul Muhammed, coordinator, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Edo North chapter gave the hint in an exclusive interview with BusinessDay in Auchi.
Muhammed listed the communities to include Auchi, Uzuaire, South- Ibie in Etsako West and Weppa at Etsako East local government councils respectively.
Muhammed who is also the Edo State vice- chairman of Roots and Tubers Expansion Programme said the farmers will cultivate 300 hectares of cassava farms in the 2014 fiscal year.
He added that Auchi group which is made up of 41 farmers will cultivate 100 hectares, Uzuaire which is 30 will cultivate 50 hectares, and South- Ibie which is 23 in number will cultivate 50 while Weppa with 41 members will also cultivate 100 hectares.
He said each of the farmers will be empowered with the sum of N250.000 in addition to 50 percent grants for land preparations; procure of fertilizers, farms inputs and among others.
The AFAN coordinator who however decried the compulsory down payment of 20 percent that is N50.000 as counterpart fund charged the farmers by the authorities of BOA however called on the Edo state government to help subsidize the funds for them.
He wondered how peasant farmers that are hoping to migrate from subsidence system of farming to mechanize being charged N50, 000 before accessing federal government approved interventionist funds.
Muhammed urged the Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole to help pay the amounts which are about N6.750million, noting that the said money could recoup the money when the farmers are disposing of their products.
“I want to appeal to the state governor, Adams Oshiomhole to help subsidize this 20 percent compulsory fees being charged by each farmer by the bank for the interest of the state.
“Edo State is one of the participating pilot states and if the efforts of the farmers are truncated by this huge charges the state will lose the opportunity as well as the farmers”, he said.
He also disclosed that the farmers have been linked to Idawor farms operator of Idawor cassava processing factory located at Iraokhor in Etsako Central local government area.
He posited that the cassava processing factory has been empowered by the federal government with modern equipments and machines for the production of cassava flours.
He said the payment of the 20 percent counterpart funds to the bank would elapse before the end of the week.

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The fundamental objective of the fund is channelling long-term low interest fund to the micro, small, and medium enterprises through the participating financial institutions.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, said it has earmarked N2 billion for disbursement to Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises, SMEs, operators in Nasarawa State.
The Branch Controller of the bank in Lafia, Usman Sule, disclosed this recently at a sensitisation workshop on Tuesday in Lafia.
He said N2 billion earmarked for the state was part of the N220 billion earmarked for disbursement to two million small and medium scale entrepreneurs in the country. He said the fundamental objective of the fund is channelling long-term low interest fund to the micro, small and medium enterprises through the participating financial institutions.
Mr. Sule said that the fund was expected to cover over two million micro, small and medium enterprises over a period of 10 years.
He said that 60 per cent of the fund was targeted at women entrepreneurs.
According to the branch controller, the state governments are closer to the people at the grassroots, hence the need to partner with them.
Earlier, Governor Umaru Al-Makura, who declared the workshop opened, said the workshop was organised in line with the transformation agenda of the present administration to reduce unemployment and restiveness in the state.
Mr. Al-Makura, who was represented by Asibi Umeri, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said government was determined to empower the citizens of the state, especially youths and women.
He commended the apex bank for the initiative, saying that it would bring about economic growth.
The governor urged participants to make use of the lessons learnt at the workshop to achieve the desired objective.
A participant at the workshop, Helen Agbo, said “Honestly, if they give me the money, I will be able to engage in fish farming because I am a farmer too.”
On August 16, 2013, the CBN launched the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund with a take-off capital of N220 billion.