The government of Nigeria has encouraged its people to venture largely into rabbit farming as a sign to combat the poverty situation in the country.
The government drew its National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), which is running a rabbit farming pilot program as a way to tackle poverty also encouraging its citizens to put much effort into the same.
“I have worked somewhere before and I deliberately resigned to come and start a Rabbit farming project. In fact, the project is not a short-time project. But I intended it to be long-time”, Said a rabbit farmer.
“I started very small. This farm actually started with only two rabbits in total’’, The Farmer added to his statement.
According to the World Bank, the number of people living in abject poverty in the country is over 113 million.
The government says it is hoping to lift 774,000 young Nigerians out of poverty by the end of next year by empowering them to start rabbit farming. The plan is to provide them with rabbits, cages, vaccines, and training free of charge.
The Rabbit Farmers Association of Nigeria says there are now over 39,000 rabbit farmers in the country.
“Rabbit is one production that is no waste in this sense, the meat itself is money, has low cholesterol, so it’s actually very good for people with diabetes, high blood pressure. Secondly, urine is a good fertilizer for crops like horticulture and open-field crop farming”, Said an official from the Rabbit Farmers Association of Nigeria (RFAN).
“As a young person, if going to rapid production, you are going to make money through meat production, selling the urine, as well as selling live Rabbits for the leather industry”, the official added.
Experts want the government to improve funding and micro-credit for rabbit farmers so they can do more and grow their farms.
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“You cannot go anywhere and access rabbit-feeding plastic. So rabbit farmers are just doing by themselves, they get king feet, try to modify and give the rabbit, which is not healthy for the rabbit itself, and you cannot rely on forages throughout the year. It can only be available during the rainy season, so the government must invest in research and development”, the official stated.
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The government says it was Air Max’s $1.3 billion dollars to enhance access to agricultural financing.
Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development said about 2.4 million farmers are targeted to benefit from the interest of free facility.
