Grasscutter rearing |
Mushroom Farming |
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Grasscutters (a rodent family), like many rodent species have been and continue to be a delicacy...read more |
USAID sponsored
a 3-year contract with a mushroom expert (volunteer) from NC Agricultural
and Technical State University in Greensboro, USA....read more
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Rabbit rearing program |
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Mushroom Cultivation Project
USAID sponsored
a 3-year contract with a mushroom expert (volunteer) from NC Agricultural
and Technical State University in Greensboro, USA through opportunity
industrialization center International (OICI) to enhance mushroom production
in Ghana.
After the
report and recommendation of the first year visit in November 2004,
it was agreed that BemCom be used as a tropical mushroom research and
training center to enhance training, research and production of mushrooms
in the West Africa region.
Grasscutter Rearing Project
Grasscutters (a rodent family), like many rodent species have been and continue to be a delicacy in a number of countries, in Latin America, West and central Africa and Asia.
In the areas in which markets exist for a wide variety of rodent species for consumption, grasscutters are often preferred over other sources of meat.
The vast majority of these animals are still hunted in the wild as rearing of these animals is not widely known in Western Africa.
Several species have been hunted so extensively that they are now extinct.
Grasscutter specifically has been overhunted and its savanna habitat is at risk during the dry season due to bushfires, which are lit during wild game (“bushmeat”) hunting expeditions.
Grasscutters are not the most prolific of rodent species but the high demand, attract market price and small amount of investment required makes grasscutters a suitable mini-livestock activity for income generation in many in countries of West Africa including Ghana. This offers small-scale farmers, investors, entrepreneurs and all those with wealth-mind set, an economic incentive for raising grasscutters in captivity.
Depending on your experience, grasscutter can be packaged to outfits as pepper soup meat, suya, frozen or dried meat. It is highly respected meat to serve official guests at meals
- They are herbivorous animals, so they feed mostly on grass.
- Grasscutter are polygamous in nature, hence it makes it easy to raise them in captivity and in large numbers.
- It is a very viable commercial venture
- It is a business venture that can be started on small scale with a space of less than one room at a very low cost.
- Rearing grasscutters creates an additional source of income and 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.
- Gestation period of the grasscutter is about 154 days or five month.
- The meat has high carcass quality and protein is comparable to that of poultry.
- The meat tastes well and highly relished.
- There is no known religion discrimination against grasscutter meat
Rabbit rearing program
Snail rearing program
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