GENERAL OUTLOOK OF RABBIT FARMING IN NIGERIA

Rabbit farming is an enterprise in the agricultural industry, which the current government has vowed to revive, for the benefit of Nigeria’s financial status.

 

There is amazing potential in rabbit farming because of the increased life style change of most families towards healthy living. This is evidenced by the preference to white meat rather than red meat and increase in the demand for rabbit meat in Nigeria because it has a high percentage of nutrients compared to other white meat. This trend shows future growth of rabbit farming in Nigeria and thus increased future cash flows of early entrants to the industry. The opportunity is immense based on the change in trends in the market coupled with the gap in the supply of the product.

A male rabbit is known as a buck, a female rabbit is called a doe and the kids are called kits. Rabbits mature at the age of between 4 to 6 months depending on the breed at which they can start to reproduce. To know the difference between a male and a girl rabbit, hold the rabbit in a cradling position on its back. Use one hand to separate the fur in its genital area to show the vent location underneath its tail wherein the genitals are placed. Press down gently just above the anus to make the area protrude. In case you see a vertical slit with pink folds of skin on either side, it is a female. On the male, you will see a tiny pink or white tube-like organ without pink sides.

Rabbits farming can be done in any part of Nigeria as long as they are housed well and protected from predators. There are various approaches to assemble the housing for rabbits depending on the size of the operation, location of the farm in addition to materials available. A farmer can start with a rabbit pen with the scale of 3ft. on each side that is sufficient to house a doe and her kits or a single male. It is also constructed with the use of locally sourced materials supplemented with others from the local store. More pens can be built with the increase in stock because rabbits reproduce rapidly.

Below is example of rabbit housing:

There are several breeds of rabbit in Nigeria. Most of these rabbits have been introduced into the country during the colonial era from 1914 to 1960. At some stage in this era, the influx of overseas-domesticated rabbits into Nigeria increased significantly. The British and other foreigners had kept most of these as pets. 

Farmers, hunters and children also kept rabbits in pairs to supply meat for their family consumption. These farmers/hunters practiced what is now referred to as backyard rabbit farming.

Despite the fact that these farmers were restricting their stock to two or a few pairs of rabbits to provide meat for intake by their immediate families, their operation had been fantastically successful. They had been capable of consistently supplying animal protein in their simple and balanced diet. However, they could not absolutely harness the monetary benefit in raising rabbits due to but not limited to these reasons: low performing (local) breeding stock, lack of facts/training on new traits and poor infrastructure.

In recent years, there has been a resurgence of rabbit farming in Nigeria, thanks to the financial disaster Nigeria is going through and the increased awareness of what makes a healthy diet, wholesome living and lifestyle changes.

On a small scale, rabbits are probably the very best animal to raise, and they are stress-free animals. You do not have to pluck them, they are easy to kill, and you/family can consume a whole rabbit without need for refrigeration, plus, they are noiseless creatures and you neighbors will not have to complain.

The breeds of rabbits appropriate for meat production in Nigeria:

The common breeds suitable for commercial rabbit farming in Nigeria are New Zealand white, Chinchilla, California white and Flemish giant. They have their own unique features as shown below:

Chinchilla
• Have brown to grey fur.
• Upstanding ears and brown eyes.

• Meat yield is 2.3-3.1kg.

New Zealand white
• Have dense white fur. Upstanding ears and red/pink eyes.
• The buck and doe attain weight of 4.5 and 4.5-5.5 kg. respectively at 4 months.
• Meat yield is 3.0-3.5 kg.

California white
• Have a dense white fur.
• Upstanding black ears and black nose.
• The buck and the doe attain weight of 3.0-3.5 kg. at 4-6 months.
• Meat yield is 2.0-2.3 kg.

Flemish giant
• Have brown fur.
• Upstanding brown white ears brown eyes.
• The buck and the doe attain weight of 5.0-5.5 kg. in 4-6 months.
• Meat yield is 2.5-3.0 kg.
• Flemish giant may have various colours; black, blue fawn, light grey, sandy steel, grey and white.

For their feed, maximum use is made of local forage materials and kitchen waste, or feed wastes of other animals is used by farmers, minimizing the competition with humans for food.

By all appearances, rabbit farming in Nigeria will go a long way in dealing with malnutrition, poverty and unemployment. These fluffy herbivores eat grass/hay instead of energy- intensive soy or fish-meal, grow quickly and thrive in clean, disease-free conditions. A single doe will have multiple litters every year, and those litters will reach breeding age within months; that means a rabbit can produce six pounds of meat on the same amount of feed and water it takes a cow to produce just one pound.

For me, Rabbit farming is the bomb considering the uncontrolled population growth in Nigeria plus the suitable features and characteristics of rabbits that make them indispensable suppliers of quality meat protein to fight the menace of hunger and malnutrition in Nigeria.