Status, Challenges and Prospects of Grasscutter Farming in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana
Journal Title: Journal of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Animal Sciences - Year 2022, Vol 3, Issue 2
Abstract
Grasscutter meat remains a delicacy in Ghana and other African countries. This has led to several attempts at domestication and production of grasscutters to ensure constant availability of their meat. In recent times, grasscutter farming is increasingly gaining popularity. This work was conducted to assess the current state, challenges and prospects of the grasscutter industry in Accra, Ghana using a structured questionnaire. A total of 38 grasscutter farmers were interviewed. It was observed that 89.5% of the respondents were males whiles females represented only 10.5%. All the respondents had some level of education. Only 5.3% of the respondents are engaged in grasscutter farming as their full-time job. The remaining 94.7 % are either full time workers in the public or private sector or are into crop farming or rearing of other animals. Even though 47.4% of the grasscutter farmers have been practicing for more than 5 years, majority (57.9%) of them do not belong to any grasscutter farmer’s association. Majority (71.1%) of the respondents kept at least one form of records on their farms. Major challenges of grasscutter farmers in Accra are: the unavailability of feed (pasture), difficulty in transporting grass to their various farms, lack of space to expand, lack of uniformity in pricing their animals, difficulty in handling some of the animals, waste management, lack of veterinary support and the gross unreliability of farm hands. For most of the respondents, the future of the grasscutter industry in Accra is very bright.
Authors and Affiliations
Richard Kwamena ABBIW, Kweku ASARE-DOMPREH, Obed Danso ACHEAMPONG, Sop Foka Eric IGOR, Ben ENYETORNYE*
Keywords
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