Popular West African delicacy, the meat of grasscutter, ”akrante3” in akan parlance of Ghana, has seen an astronomical price increase in the wake of inflation in Ghana. It tastes so good thus not too surprising to find it in the price upward adjustments even though the animal is a domesticated animal, unimported, and doesn’t attract foreign exchange trade. It is therefore amusing that dealers in grasscutter meat are exploiting the times to reap supernormal profits.
It is the most expensive meat as a normal cutting in the soup averagely costs 50 Ghana cedis at the latest. Therefore, the decision to buy grasscutter meat as part of your meal must be very deliberate. Patrons interested in savoring the delicacy to the maximum may have to pull more of the currency notes for two or more cuttings at a time. The reason could be that the grasscutter meat tastes so good yet is not chunky. The bones of grasscutters cannot also be easily broken with the jaw in what proverbially the African describes as ”my meat is too good, you cannot savor my bone in addition.”
Clearly, dealers in the product are gouging customers unless costs for domestic breeding or it takes more pains for the hunter to leash this prey. How many times does the hunter change the locally-made gun for this venture, and have the risks involved in the hunt for the animal in the wild become severer? Have costs incurred in the formulation of animal feed by agricultural research scientists been carried along with the inflationary whirlwind? In Ghana, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR, prepares feed blocks and pellets for those rearing grasscutters at home. It can, however, be explained by the increasing cost of other accessories for partakers in the grasscutter business which ultimately gets transferred onto the grasscutter.
Also known as cane rats, the grasscutter (Thryonomys swinderianus) is a large rodent distributed across sub-Saharan Africa that is highly valued as a source of protein. There has been little effort to evaluate the genetic structure of grasscutters despite long-term harvesting pressure and over 40 years of grasscutter domestication in West Africa. It is reckoned to be a good business and reliable income supplement as it has a quick reproductive cycle. Females give birth to litters of 2–4 young at least once a year, and more frequently in some areas, depending on the technology involved in their breeding. Cane rats are sexually mature and able to reproduce at 6 months of age.