A Lusaka-based farmer has urged fellow farmers to consider Rabbit farming, citing its high profitability and useful by products.
Marsburg Shamilimo said rabbit farming is a good farming venture because rabbits have a short gestation period which enables them to multiply quickly.
Speaking when he featured on the Neighborhood radio program on one love radio, Mr. Shamilimo explained that rabbit’s by-products such as urine, can be used as fertilizer for crop production, thereby increasing profits.
“The urine, you are able to use it as fertilizer in your field, apart from that, I sell that rabbit urine, so the money that I get from the rabbit urine is the one I use to buy feed which acts as a supplement on top,” he said.
He said the market is readily available and has emphasized the need to strengthen marketing efforts in order to fully benefit from the business.
“Market for the rabbit is there, and like I said, NGOs and government sector would want to come and buy rabbits from you or to partner with you to educate people on the same rabbit production but are they going to find good and quality rabbits from you,” Mr. Shamilimo said.
And Mr. Shamilimo has appealed to government to empower more rabbit farmers and educate farming cooperatives on the benefits of this type of farming.
He added that there is need to introduce farming education in schools at an early stage so that we produce skilled farmers.
“I’m appealing to the ministry of agriculture through the extension offices to educate the cooperatives because the cooperatives are the ones that feed the nation,” he said.
He however advised rabbit farmers to improve the housing conditions for their rabbits in order to boost production.
The farmer encouraged his fellow farmers to start small and not wait until they have everything in place, saying they should not be discouraged by the size of their land or other limitations.
