BUBANZA, August 9th (ABP) – Insufficient knowledge on the practice of rabbit farming is considered one of the obstacles to performance, for some rabbit farmers in Bubanza province (northwest Burundi), a check by ABP revealed.
The check by ABP contacted members of the cooperative “Tugwizumwimbu mukworora inkwavu”, from Mitakataka in Bubanza district. They indicated that the cooperative started with 14 rabbits in December 2023, but deplore that, so far, it has not yet exceeded 60 rabbits in their hutch.
Oscar Mugabonihera, leader of that cooperative, says that at the beginning, rabbits often died, due to diseases that they could not control; young rabbits were killed by wild rats until they combined rabbit farming with guinea pig breeding so that the latter would protect these rabbits against those rats. For some of the causes of the unsatisfactory performance that the cooperative recorded, Mr. Mugabonihera speaks of the lack of knowledge in relation to rabbit farming, the lack of knowledge of medicines and concentrated foods, specific to rabbits and others. Some of the members of the cooperative raise the other constraint of lack of market for the flow of rabbit urine, saying that the entourage is not yet aware of the advantages of the urine in fields. These members of the cooperative “Tugwizumwimbu mu kworora inkwavu” ask for capacity building and the exchange of experiences in rabbit farming techniques, considered profitable for those who master it. They call on others to team up into self-development cooperatives because, they say, not only is unity strength, but also there is complementarity of the talents among the members.