Grasscutter Farming: A Potent ‘Game Changer’ For The Youth, Others

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•Prince Arinze Onebunne holding a grasscutter

By Prince Arinze Onebunne

grasscutter1The World Bank makes it clear that the foundation for development and for breaking the backbone of poverty is self-employment and entrepreneurship. The greatest need of the poor is food, clothes and shelter. No government can create enough jobs for her citizens; government creates the enabling environment, while the people create the jobs themselves. It is Agriculture that creates the highest number of employment in the society; more than other sectors like telecommunications, transportation, petroleum, construction etc.

Over ten million jobs can be created in micro, small and medium scale animal production alone. The corporate bodies can engage the army of unemployed youths which is at present dominated by the people who are mostly school leavers, with senior secondary school certificates and graduates of tertiary institutions. If banks, oil and telecommunication companies can venture into agriculture, then this country will bounce back.  Nigeria is a fertile area for agricultural development. Many of us abandoned agriculture for the oil sector. Nigeria’s over dependence on oil is a very risky option.  We feel farming is only meant for our grandparents in the village. Nigeria has lost the potential of 9 billion US dollars yearly. Our yield per hectare is the lowest so far. Nigerian soil is five times more fertile and arable than Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, etc yet we import over N2 trillion in wheat, rice, sugar, flour, poultry, beef and fish every year. This dilemma is not confined to the urban areas, as rural unemployment is on the rise. These various dimensions of employment reflect the undiversified structure of the economy, a factor which restricts and affects the scope for reasonable job creation and employment generation.

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Sadly, Nigeria’s preference and mad rush for oil money has led to utter neglect of these lucrative agricultural enterprises. One of the smartest things the Nigerian government can do is to encourage Nigerians to go back to agriculture especially by helping farmers take advantage of their greatest asset-micro and small livestock production. Most small farmers own a few cows, some pigs, goats, sheep grasscutters, rabbit and poultry. But many don’t understand the many roles these animals can play towards boosting a farm’s productivity, so the animals are underutilized. It was the realization of huge potentials and promise that agriculture holds for development and poverty reduction in our country that motivated JOVANA FARMS to launch nationwide agro-awareness creation and sensitization seminars, to make agricultural sector a major area of government intervention in Nigeria. The company’s intervention strategies were based on its sound understanding of the problems associated with agricultural development in Nigeria which include, lack of access to improve farm inputs; new adoptable agricultural technologies, marketing, packaging, storage facilities, exporting, and finance.

Jovana farms organizes nationwide sensitization training seminars on the practical ways of making it through small scale farming.  Attend our nationwide seminars nearest to you and know more about opportunities in grasscutter farming. Visit www.jovanafarm.com or www.facebook.com/jovanafarm for more details.

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