The agriculture department is encouraging Filipinos, especially those in the cities, to raise rabbits for food consumption and boost their income.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) issued Memorandum Circular (MC) 6 series of 2023 that outlined the guidelines on rabbit raising in urban and peri-urban areas.
The rabbit raising program is part of the Bureau of Animal Industry’s (BAI) National Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Program (NUPAP) that seeks to boost food security through various livestock and poultry production in urban or peri-urban conditions.
The programs under the NUPAP also aim to provide Filipinos with an alternative source of livelihood and help in solid waste management.
“Rabbit raising for meat is an alternative venture as a supplementary source of income, especially for farmers or households in urban and peri-urban areas. Rabbit meat has high protein content, iron, and minerals, and is low in cholesterol,” Senior Agriculture Secretary Domingo F. Panganiban said in MC 6 published recently.
The MC 6 stipulated that the BAI would encourage rabbit meat raising by providing qualified households with rabbit breeder stocks, cages, feeds and technical assistance.
“This will create awareness of the potential of rabbit raising as an alternative source of income,” it said.
In implementing the project, BAI will partner with concerned DA-Regional Field Offices (RFO) and local government units (LGU).
Under the guidelines, the BAI will be responsible for providing the necessary technical assistance, selecting the eligible recipients, distributing production modules and monitoring and evaluating the project.
Meanwhile, the DA-RFOs and LGUs shall assist the BAI during the course of the project, according to the guidelines.
“The source of funds for the project shall be through the General Appropriations of the NUPAP following the disbursement rules set by the Department of Budget and Management [DBM] and guided by the government rules and regulations,” the document read.
Interested participants of the rabbit meat production program must have an area of at least 200 square meters and should be a member of a farmers groups or households or institutions that can be clustered for monitoring and biosecurity purposes.
The DA-RFO and the LGU can identify prospects and eligible beneficiaries for the program and shall be endorsed to the BAI.
The BAI will distribute five heads of two months old rabbits as breeder stocks with one set of three-layered rabbit cages and 25 kilograms of rabbit feed for each beneficiary.
Since its previous leadership, the agriculture department has been promoting the production and consumption of rabbit meat as an alternative livelihood amid concerns to local hog output due to the threat of African swine fever.
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