Current status of rabbit keeping in the coastal savannah agro-ecological zone of Ghana

2019

English

A survey on rabbit production was undertaken in 15 political administrative areas in the Coastal Savannah ecological zone of Ghana. The rabbitries were categorized as ultra-small, small, medium and large-scale according to the number of animals kept. The average age of the rabbit keepers was 43.7 years and rabbit production was largely undertaken as secondary occupation by the majority of keepers who had acquired post primary education. Management of rabbitries was mainly undertaken by the owners of rabbitries and their households. Rabbit farming technologies were provided by experienced rabbit keepers and extension agents, while a few keepers acquired farming technologies from books and online. The main source of capital for establishing rabbit-ries was personal savings. Majority of the rabbit keepers got into rabbit production for income generation and domestic consumption. Most of the rabbitries kept crossbreds between local and exotic breeds, and the rest kept local and perceived exotic breeds. The rabbitries had on the average 84 animals. Kits were weaned at 6.5 weeks old on the average, mean litter size was 4.3 kits and kindling per doe was 4.1 per year. Prevalent rabbit disease conditions were mange, coccidiosis and diarhoea, and mortalities occurred mainly at birth and reduced as the rabbits grew older. Marketing of rabbits was largely unorganized with sales occurring mainly when there was a willing buyer or urgent need for money. High cost and unavailability of feed, poor marketing and lack of good breeding stock were the major constraints to rabbit production in the zone. There is a need to sensitize the general public on the unique qualities of rabbit meat by the rabbit producer associations and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to increase production and consumption of rabbit meat in the zone.

Osei, D. Y.; Apori, S. O.; Hagan, J. K.; Asiedu, P.