After about six months of preparing and saving up funds, I
finally went to purchase and stock my first colony of grasscutters. The routine
of cleaning and feeding was a bit challenging for me at first but I got
accustomed with it quickly. Everything was going well and I was anticipating
when they will be ready to mate, parturition day and grow my farm in numbers.
But 17days after stocking, on a cool Sunday morning, I woke up early in the
morning to clean the pens when I found one of the females lying cold dead in
the cage. I was panicky, scared, frightened and disappointed all at the same
time. My morale and enthusiasm was deflated. No one told me about this; that my
animals could just die and there would be nothing to do or no one to complain
to; I felt sick.
That one dead animal meant I had lost N12,000 (twelve
thousand naira). Not just that, but also the potential eight (8) grasscuttlings
it could have giving birth to in one year. Thinking about the multiplier
financial loss from just that one dead animal gave me a headache. I couldn’t
stop thinking about what could have caused the death. I was apprehensive about
the remainder grasscutters. Were they going to drop dead one after the other
just like that with me helpless and not able to do anything? I kept checking
their pen every other minute hoping none had died again.
My sleep that night was not the best. I woke up earlier than
usual and headed straight to their pen. I can’t tell what was going through my
head. On one hand I was praying and hoping they were still all alive and
healthy; on another hand I was strengthening myself for the sight of another
dead grasscutter. It was really not a good experience. If I didn’t have a good
health myself, I would have had high BP. Yeah you are probably laughing at my
experience right now or you can resonate with my experience because you have
been in a similar situation :) no problem!
The essence of this experience sharing is
neither to excite you nor is it to discourage you from taking the plunge into
your agricultural endeavor, the purpose it to say it should not always be this
way. We all want our foray into agriculture and farming to be all rosy but more
often than not it isn’t always so. Risk of disasters like death of animals is
inevitable but it can be insured against.
AGRIC INSURANCE
Now back to my story; do you know that with a fraction (less
than 3%) of my investment into buying a grasscutter colony I could have insured
the whole colony against this disaster. I would have saved myself of all the
apprehension and worry by buying ‘peace of mind’.
Let us do some maths:
Without
Insurance
|
With
Insurance
|
|
1 colony (Cost in naira)
|
50,000 to 70,000
|
51,250 to 71,750
|
Extra expense (assumed Loss)
|
(No peace of mind)
|
(1,250 to 1,750)
|
Assumption
|
If
one female dies
|
If
one female dies
|
Loss
|
10,000 to 14,000 +
Potential 8 cuttlings for the year
|
The insurance pays you back
10,000 to 14,000 + cost of feeding
from day of stocking to date of death.
|
Your action
|
Cry, count your loss and lick your
wounds. You could even quit the farming business or advise no one to go into
it. :(
|
Collect your compensation and go buy
an extra female. You are back to where you were before the disaster. :)
|
And note that the insurance premium does not stop there. It
still covers your losses for a whole year not just a one off. So while saving that money to buy 1,2,3…9 colonies of
grasscutter to start the ‘silent money machine’, protect yourself by factoring
into your financial plans an insurance premium of 2.5% - 3.5% of the cost of
procurement.
HOW DOES AGRIC
INSURANCE WORK
Agric insurance like regular insurance is a financial concept
where indemnity is provided against loss or disaster due to uncontrollable
occurrences after the payment of a premium. Such occurrences include fire, etc.
that results in death in the case of livestock and loss of produce in the case
of crops. Agric insurance service is provided by insurance companies licensed
to provide insurance in the agric sector.
1. Pay a premium of 2.5 – 3.5% of the value of the animals
you want to insure.
2. If any of your animals gets injured or dies
due to any of these disasters – fire, accident, disease/illness etc. you make a
claim and get your business back up.
To sign up for an insurance policy contact
Mo’Agro Farms
T: 08060043692, 07088625468 e: moagrofarms@gmail.com
t: @moagrofarms f:
Mo’Agro Farms blog: grasscutterstore.blogspot.com.ng
