14th December, 2012
Finding success as a livestock entrepreneur can be a challenging but an interesting venture. The Managing Consultant/CEO, Jovana Farms Prince Arinze Onebunne, discovered early that excelling in the basic tenets of animal care helps one to advance in the industry.
Hard work and willingness to adopt new ideas have assisted in transforming the business.
For him, animal husbandry is the sure foundation of profitable and sustainable agriculture.
“I was into other types of businesses before venturing into animal farming. No one encouraged me while I was going into it, but I persevered due to my background hunting
game in the village. I was able to endure and continue rearing these animals and within a short time, I began reaping the gains,” he says.
Onebunne’s desire is to convert many Nigerians to micro livestock entrepreneurs to make their contribution in the livestock market, and by extension to the economy. This when translated into action, will increase employment generation.
A promoter of backyard animal production as a tool of alleviating poverty and malnutrition, Onebunne, believes urban and rural-based backyard mini livestock production could be a rich resource for developing agro-entrepreneurship in the country.
To tackle unemployment and poverty, the Jovana Farms boss, said he encourages people to go into mini livestock businesses which they can start with as little as between N35,000 and N50,000.
He listed such businesses to include rearing of snails, rabbits, guinea pig, porcupine, bee keeping and grasscutters. All these, he explained, belong to the micro livestock businesses class. With time, he said, they can grow their businesses beyond being a source of family meat and supplement income into large-scale operation that can provide a life-time income. What he teaches is profitable livestock business. The issue for him, is to watch out for better business opportunities, and grasscutter farming is a really good one, if one knows how to raise and manage it.
Onebunne started his grasscutter business amid many challenges, but today, he makes enough money to take care of his family: employ additional hands and offer professional services to other farmers that are interested in venturing into the grasscutter business.
“The expansion is such that now I supply high quality breeds of any of these animals I rear to farmers both within and outside Nigeria because those that now know the benefit of this business are coming to me to get breeding stock and to get technical and professional advice.”
According to him, “grasscutter farming is the way out of poverty for Nigeria’s teeming unemployed masses, because with only N50,000, one can begin the grasscutter farming and within a year, you are sure to grow your farm with 56 more grasscutters.”
“Starting a grasscutter farm is not a difficult task because all you need is to purchase a family and a family consists of one male and four females because the grasscutter is polygamous in nature,” explained Onebunne.
According to him, a family of grasscutter is sold for N45,000 but they mature after eight months and can begin littering after these months, each female grasscutter can litter up to 10 babies per birth.
He said if one wants to make money rearing fish, snail, antelope and grasscutter, one must learn how the market operates.
The major determining forces in the market are the weight, height and quality of the animals.
Because of his success, people are looking out for his seminars. Onebunne is often doing research to boost his knowledge and skills. He now hauls into the market CDs and manuals on viable methods of farming fish, antelope, snail, and breeding grasscutters.
“We want governments at all levels to key into the benefit of this business and encourage local farmers to go into this productive and income generating venture to better their lives in addition to other forms of farming that are being practiced.
“Jovana farms can supply breeding stock to any farmer or government interested in starting this business and the breeds are not expensive looking at the huge benefits therein,” he said.
Jovana farms organises nationwide sensitization training seminars on the practical ways of making it through small scale farming. Attend our nationwide seminars nearest to you know more opportunities in grasscutter farming.
Visit www.jovanafarm.com for more details. Choose also the nearest venue from the advert box in this page.