The National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) says it has started a programme for rabbit farming, which is expected to engage 17,000 youths, especially in the South.
The Executive Secretary of NALDA, Mr Paul Ikonne disclosed this while addressing newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said that NALDA would make available the rabbits, cage, vaccine and training for the youths for free, while the beneficiaries were expected to return the kitten when the rabbit delivered so that it would be used to empower others.
“If you recall, Mr. President had launched national young farmers scheme, which we intend to take in 774,000 young Nigerians into the entire agribusiness.
“And this programme has started implementing the first leg of it which is our animal husbandry.
“In this segment, we are doing goat rearing and rabbits rearing, a lot of people do not know the potential, the benefits and the money they can make from rearing rabbit.
“Rabbit has entire value chain, nothing is a waste in rabbit farming.
“All our programmes are in phases, in this first phase, Imo, Abia, Cross River and Oyo have received rabbits and young farmers have been engaged into rabbit farming,” he said.
Ikonne said that NALDA would also buy the urine, dungs and skin of the rabbits from the youths, which would also be a source of income for the beneficiaries.
“From the meat, the hide, which is the skin, the dungs and the urine, they are all money-making machine.
“The programme is very simple, from the first day the farmer starts rearing rabbits, they start making money; from the collection of the urine, to the collection of the dungs which will be used as fertiliser,
“Their money will keep accumulating; at the end of the month, we’ll pay them based on the litres and kilograms of what they have submitted to NALDA’s office at their various states before the off-taker takes it,” he explained.
Oknnone said the benefits of rearing rabbits was huge; before going into the processing and the sale of the animal itself “is another means of income’’.
“So you can see the benefits of engaging our people in rabbit rearing, it is not common in Nigeria, but diversification is the way to go and agriculture is the direction the world is heading.
“The beauty about this is that it doesn’t have much hazard, it doesn’t require so much, rabbit virtually eats everything and it doesn’t require too much space, so you can farm it at the smallest space you have in your house whether you are a landlord or a tenant and it doesn’t litter the environment.’’
Ikonne said each beneficiary was expected to earn an average of N100,000 monthly from the sales of the urine, dungs, skin and the rabbit itself.
“At least the average of N100,000 a month, a farmer swill be making from rearing rabbits from all these products, and you can see the level it will get to cater for families and homes, so it is something we have engaged in and we will keep expanding.”
He said President Muhammadu Buhari had given all the approvals and the funds required to implement the programme had been made available to NALDA.
`For interested persons for the process of being a beneficiary, our programme is community-based, if you live in an urban area, you have to go identify yourself at NALDA office in your state.
“We have offices across the country at various state capitals. If you also check our website, you will see NALDA offices, we also have our WhatsApp group for those who intend to rear rabbits to also register through the NALDA WhatsApp Group. (NAN).
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