Rabbit Production in Zimbabwe

All the views below are my own and do not represent an official or statistical position.

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.