Rabbit rearing to the rescue

Anastasia Cunningham, News Coordinator

Residents turn to animal husbandry to combat unemployment

FOR THE last two years the deep rural community of Axe and Adze in Mount Peto, Hanover has been using rabbit rearing as a means to provide employment for its close to 600 residents.

With very limited employment opportunities, farming, masonry and carpentry were their main livelihood. However, with the downturn in the economy, increase in population and growing needs, they wanted an innovative, sustainable project that would enable consistence earnings.

Uniting through the Axe and Adze Citizens' Association, in 2010 the community launched its organic farming for sustainable development project, focusing on rabbit rearing.

"We wanted to do something different that would be a good seller on the market, and we felt rabbit farming would be the best choice, because they breed rapidly and there was a growing market for it," said Rupert Shippy, president of the Axe and Adze Citizens' Association.

"We hope the project would help to provide income for our residents through the sale of the meat, the rabbits, organic manure and the marketing of the country style tourism project we also wanted to start."

Working with the Social Development Commission, they started out with eight rabbits, and a one-and-a-half-acre property was dedicated to the project.

Markets were sought in the supermarkets, shops and individual consumers, with one rabbit retailing for $2,000 and the meat selling for between $200 and $300 per pound. The rabbit skin was also sold for a number of purposes, including clothing, handbags and accessories.

The project began to suffer a number of setbacks, however, as the rabbits started to die due to improper rearing environment. In addition, the market for rabbit meat was not as big as they expected.

"It didn't really work how we expected. We tried a number of ways to create a market, making proposals to the hotels, supermarkets ad other places. However, they felt we wouldn't have enough rabbits to sustain the market," said Shippy.

To help create a demand and demonstrate various ways rabbit meat can be prepared, in May the Mount Peto community hosted a rabbit festival, which was well supported. Visitors were treated to delights like jerk, barbecue and curry rabbit.

MORE RABBIT FESTS

The residents plan to host several other rabbit fests to generate more interest.

A part of the rabbit-rearing project is a revolving loan scheme, where persons are given a pair of rabbit and from that litter, they return a pair to the scheme.

They also use the rabbit excrement to produce organic mature for sale and internal use.

"We now have about four rabbit farms in Mount Peto, with over 200 rabbits. There are also several persons rearing on their own," said Shippy.

The property that houses the main farm is now being developed to include another rabbit pen, a chicken farm as well as a produce farm, as the community seeks to expand into other means of generating an income.

"Poverty is a big problem across Hanover, and because of this several persons have gotten involved in the lotto scam, which has led to a lot of criminal activities. So we have to come up with different ways to generate an income, and give the youth in the community an alternative means to earn a living. Our rabbit-rearing project helps them to stay away from illegal activities," noted Shippy.

COUNTRY STYLE TOURISM

In December, the community is also hoping to launch its country style tourism project, which will be another source of income.

Visitors will be taken on nature walks to experience the natural beautiful of the community, which includes its cave, spring, numerous animal farms and its overall natural environment. There will also be a bed and breakfast programme for those wishing to spend more time enjoying the natural wonders of Mount Peto.

"We already got the approval of JSIF (Jamaica Social Investment Fund), so we hope that by December we can have tourists coming in to experience our natural environment," said Shippy.

anastasia.cunningham@gleanerjm.com