Abstract:
The main producers of rabbits in the world are Italy, Russia, Ukraine, France, China, Spain, Southeast Asia, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. In Kenya, farmers have made an effort towards food self sufficiency by raising various livestock breeds such as cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and poultry, but the country remains food insecure. Rabbits are nonconventional source of protein and are increasingly being kept in Kenya to enhance household food security and income. However, despite the advantages of rabbit production such as the ease of starting the project compared to other livestock projects, the percentage of farmers who rear rabbits and the rabbit population in Subukia-Sub County is generally unsatisfactory. The factors influencing rabbit production among smallholder farmers in the Sub County are not adequately understood or documented, hence the need for this study which used a cross- sectional design. A sample of 110 smallholder rabbit keepers was selected from population of 250 rabbit farmers. Snowball sampling was used to arrive at the sample size drawn from Subukia, Kabazi and Mbogoini divisions. A semi-structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Validity of the instrument was ascertained by experts from Department of Agricultural Education and Extension of Egerton University. Reliability was established through a pilot test involving 30 farmers from Bahati Division of Nakuru North Sub-County, and a reliability coefficient of 0.81α was obtained, which was above the 0.70 threshold for acceptable reliability. Data were analyzed using Chi-square at 0.05α level of significance set a priori. Results indicated that the extent of rabbit production as a household enterprise in Subukia Sub-County was unsatisfactory as indicated by the small number of breeding rabbits kept by the farmers. Four hypotheses were tested by use of Chi-square. The findings indicated that rabbit production was significantly influenced by access to credit, access to extension services, access to market outlets, and access to breeding stock (p ≤ 0.05). The findings also indicated that the scale of rabbit production, number of animals kept and income generated were low among the farmers. The study recommends that the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries establishes a policy framework to guide on the training of farmers and extension agents on rabbit production.
