Raising rabbits helps people escape poverty.

(Baonghean) - In 2011, after researching information in books, newspapers, and mass media, the family of Mr. Vung and Ms. Hien in Dong Song hamlet, Dong Hop commune (Quy Hop district) boldly invested in buying exotic rabbit breeds from New Zealand and the United States to raise. Learning from experience, this model has now proven to be highly effective economically and has opened up opportunities for many farmers to escape poverty.

Rabbits are gentle animals, easy to raise, and require minimal investment in cages and breeding stock. Their main food consists of sweet potato leaves and various root vegetables. Rabbit meat is quite nutritious, easy to prepare, good for children, and beneficial for people with diabetes, weakness, and those who are thin and frail. Recognizing the market demand for rabbit meat, in 2011, Mr. Vững's family experimented with raising four pairs of breeding rabbits. After five months, the rabbits matured and were ready for breeding. Each rabbit gave birth to a litter of 7 to 10 offspring per month. After about three months, the rabbits could be sold for meat. From this initial experiment, Mr. Vững's family has now invested in enclosed cages, with an average of 30 breeding and meat rabbit pairs in their cages to supply the market.

To meet market demand, Mr. Vung's family went all the way to the Animal Breeding Institute in Hanoi to buy foreign rabbit breeds for breeding. These are large rabbits, weighing an average of 4-6 kg depending on the care conditions, and their meat is tastier.

Currently, his family sells rabbit meat at 120,000 VND/kg and breeding rabbits at 200,000 VND per pair. With the current scale of farming, all the commercial and breeding rabbits his family raises are sold immediately. Mr. Vung shared his rabbit farming experience: “Rabbits are very easy to raise, mainly eating roots and fruits, and yield very high economic returns. I have two types of rabbits: New Zealand rabbits and American hybrid rabbits. When they reach a weight of 4-5 kg, some even up to 6 kg, they are ready for sale. Rabbits rarely get sick, and the investment in breeding stock is cheap, suitable for the income of the people. You can grow sweet potato leaves, elephant grass, and milk grass to feed the rabbits. Rabbits give birth once a month, with an average of 7 to 10 offspring each time.”

The family of Mr. Vung and Ms. Hien is establishing connections with restaurants and hotels, not only to ensure a stable market for their products but also to serve as a reliable destination for impoverished households to visit and learn from, thereby applying the knowledge gained to rabbit farming – a promising path for many farmers to escape poverty.

Thu Huong