Over the last couple of months I have been travelling up and
down the country and being a ‘rabbit farmer’ would naturally find myself
noticing areas & communities where rabbits are kept. To a large extent,
rabbits are kept in almost all communities of the country at homestead level
with very little commercial production (greater than 100 does). In fact it might
be fair, in my view, to say there is no commercial or large scale production of
rabbits taking place in Zimbabwe. However there seems to be a large market for
rabbit as every single ‘rabbit farmer’ whom I spoke to confirmed that they are
able to sell surplus rabbits with little effort.
Below is my analysis of rabbit production in Zimbabwe and a
few suggestions for the policy makers and other stakeholders.
Research & Breeding stock
Facilities for breeding rabbits are widespread with most
tertiary educational institutions visited having well built structures for
rabbits. These seem to have been carefully planned and designed with the main
objective being teaching & research. There is no doubt that as a country we
have the capacity through the agricultural institutions to produce a large
number of quality breeding rabbits should the need arise. The other interesting
thing I discovered is the number of secondary & high schools that had
similar facilities. Again these are well planned & designed, even though
sometimes materials used are not always up to standard. To my mind, there was a
period when rabbit production was prioritised and resources made available for
research and production expansion. There seems to have been a deliberate
strategy at the time to target educational institutions at all levels. There is
however no doubt that the skills to breed rabbits still exist and should there
be need, the country can easily resume production of breeder rabbits. Another
important observation was how government employees, teachers, lecturers,
soldiers, police, nurses & prison officers who are provided government
housing tended to keep rabbits as a backyard activity. This is telling of the
importance of rabbits at household level and the spread of the activity.
Production methods
As mentioned above, rabbit breeding facilities exist at
formal government institutions, but these are not always fully utilised, with
some of them having been converted to chicken or pig production and some left
unused. However, the most popular method of production by far was where the
rabbits are kept in cages raised off the ground. The cages hold from one to several
rabbits and are largely home-made from a variety of locally sourced materials.
Typical numbers of rabbits that can be found in backyards did not exceed
twenty. In terms of breeding, there is usually very limited control over
mating, though a primary buck could always be identified in the majority of
set-ups. The lack of mating control means there is a high rate of
cross-breeding and possible in-breeding, but on the whole most of the rabbits
seen were observed to be in very good health without any clear signs of
in-breeding. Another method observed to be popular was a form of colony system
where rabbits were kept on the floor in built up structures, usually a converted
storeroom.
Feed
Depending on the area, urban versus rural, the rabbits are fed a variety of items
from vegetables, left over sadza, sweet potatoes, maize leafs, mulberry leafs,
banana leafs and a host of other locally available items that would be in
season. Being a backyard activity, very little cost is spent on food. Although
rabbit pellets are readily available in urban areas, these do not seem to be
widely used. A discussion at one of the stock-feed depots revealed that some of
the rabbits pellets sold were actually finding their way to feeding other
animals, such as pigs, ducks and broiler chickens and not rabbits.
Market
No formal market exists for rabbits and it seems most of the
rabbits produced in Zimbabwe are sold to family and friends. A few butchers and
supermarkets stock rabbit and likewise even fewer restaurants have rabbit on
their menu. On enquiry, supply to these outlets is erratic and they are
unwilling to deal with individuals who in the main are unregistered to process
meat products. Although there is a vibrant informal market, the process to
formalise it will need greater involvement of the authorities and support to
build processing plants that are up to the correct standards. Effort also has
to be put in developing new markets.
Suggestions
A lot of the key issues needed to make ‘rabbit farming’ a
viable and worthwhile pursuit are already in place, like breeder facilities,
breeding & production skills, pellet feed producers, alternative feed and a
market. The formalisation of the marketing process and the building of rabbit processing
facilities will go a long way in encouraging new producers and new customers.
The resuscitation of a rabbit breeders association would also go a long way to
attract new investments into this area. Although it is difficult to see rabbit
production increasing to the levels at which chicken is currently being
produced at in the short term, there is a lot of potential and I would
encourage the authorities, farmers and other stakeholders to come together and
strategise on how to increase rabbit production in Zimbabwe.
Parting shot
Zimbabwe is currently experiencing a shortage of protein and
the demand for affordable meat and meat products remains very high. Chicken producers
have benefited the most from this shortage, but production costs remain very
high. Rabbit is an alternative and its production is not land or capital hungry
has with chicken or the larger livestock. There is an opportunity here for
individual farmers, farming companies, and other interested organisations to
generate good income and for government to create employment at a
local/community level and alleviate part of the protein shortage.
For our part, we are open for business and will be waiting
for your orders for breeding rabbits and for rabbit meat should you require.
