The Secretary, Plateau State Rabbit Breeders Association, Mr Pam Gyang, on Tuesday, disclosed that rabbit farming has become popular in the state with many residents engaging in it.
Gyang who said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Jos, explained that it has become a household business just like poultry farming.
Gyang said that many training outfits involved in the breeding and selling of live rabbits were springing up across the state.
The secretary said that rabbit rearing as a lucrative business could increase an individual’s income and impact positively on the economy.
“Rabbits are highly fertile and farmers sell according to their weight ranging from N1,800 to N5,000 or even more, ” he said.
He said that during the lockdown occasioned by COVID-19 families came to the farm to request for rabbit’s cages and rabbits to startup farms at their backyards.
He said that the high demand for rabbit’s meat as a result of its numerous health benefits over red meat aroused the interest of many farmers.
Gyang said that rabbit has low mortality rate and required minimal handling, adding that many people invested in rearing them to meet international market standard.
“Our rabbit meat had gone as far as London and we still export them whenever they were demanded, “he said.
He also said that farmers could generate resources from the sale of the hide and skin of rabbit for textile industries and its faeces as source of fertilizer.
