Poverty Alleviation through Backyard Rabbit Farming: A Case Study

People of Nagaland are basically non vegetarian, so products of livestock origin are in great demand. But, state produces about 64.88 per cent of the total meat and 22.13 per cent of its egg requirement. Rest part of the requirement is met through import from other states. The Backyard Rabbit Farming Model (BRFM) followed at Phek district of the Nagaland represents an alternative and self-supporting system, based on renewable farm resources and kitchen waste. This model has great potential in achieving sustained nutritional and economic security of resource poor farm families and also reducing the import of animals for meat from other states. Women from self help groups (SHGs) were selected and trained by KVK Phek on the technical aspects of the Rabbit farming and a pair of rabbit was given to each trainee as a seed unit after the training. They were motivated to share a pair of rabbit kits to fellow SHG member to achieve the horizontal spread. Economic analysis of this unique venture of rabbit farming in the targeted villages revealed that under the village condition, a female rabbit gave birth to a minimum of 25 rabbits in a year. The young rabbits sold at the age of 2 months in the market @ Rs.150 per head generated cumulative income of Rs. 3,750/female rabbit/year. As the maintenance cost is very less, an average of minimum of Rs. 2,000/female rabbit/year was earned as profit by the farm families in addition to the increase of quantity of average meat consumption of these families. By promoting appropriate environmental friendly, economically viable and socially acceptable technology, BRFM addresses the issues related to nutritional and economic security of under privileged poor tribal farmers of Nagaland and helps in mitigating poverty.