I am interested in gathering any information that would be helpful to start producing rabbits for a village school.
Fall will be the beginning of a vocational high school in Western Liberia. The school will begin with an introduction to agriculture and and several other options for student. This survey will allow students to choose a specialized path beginning in 11th and 12th grades.
The school needs to be growing more of its own food and I think that rabbits could offer a practical way to accomplish this. This could also be a good project for students to get some practical experience raising animals.
The area is protein deficient and this would also fill avoid in the diet of students at the school.
It is a given that driver ants swill be a real hazard for this project.
Any help with references to work done or any ideas that you have will be greatly appreciated.
Hello Clifford,
My names is Anna Glenn and I work at Liberia International Christian College (LICC) in Ganta in Nimba County. I work as a professor in the agricultural department and we have a large agricultural demonstration and research farm which includes many animals (dairy goats, poultry, pigs, etc) and including about 60+ rabbits. We have been raising rabbits for 6 years here. Rabbits are a great fast, easy protein source and they are very easy to grow in West Africa. We grow our rabbits in cages that we construct from wood and wire. We feed the rabbits potato greens and “quar quar” (which is a legume with high protein and nutrients…also referred to as “cover crop”). They are both very easy to find and cheap feed sources for our rabbits. We also occasionally mix in moringa and food scraps (peels from fruits and vegetables). We also make our own salt/minerals blocks that we give to the rabbits (we use a recipe that I found on Echo site in one of the newsletters).
It’s interesting that you mention the driver ants, we have not had any problem with them at all.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out to me via email (amaeglenn@gmail.com) or call at 0777971402. We would also love to have you up for a visit any time if you would like.