Green Thumb - 12 - video Dailymotion

Green Thumb - 12

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00:00 Green Thumb Tuesdays is brought to you courtesy the Agricultural Development Bank.

00:04 Growing stronger together.

00:05 They're commonly raised as pets but read commercially rabbits can be a viable source

00:16 of income. However, hopping over that bridge has proven to be a challenge.

00:21 We have seen in our parts of the world where rabbit farming is being used to boost the economy

00:28 and to help persons especially on the lower level, the lower rungs of the ladder,

00:32 to create new income and supplement the income that they already have.

00:36 At their rabbitry in Wallafield, Sean Austin and his partner Sean McLean

00:41 tend to over 300 carrot crunchers. It's an enterprise promising profits and much more.

00:48 A lot of people don't see rabbit as an option, right, but rabbit meat has a lot to offer in

00:55 terms of its health benefits. It has a lot less fat content than most of the other meats on the

01:00 market. It's higher in protein than most of the other meats on the market.

01:03 The taste, depending on the preparation, it's very similar to chicken. You can prepare rabbit meat

01:13 any way that you prepare chickens. To maximise their income, value is added to rabbit farming

01:18 by products. Rabbit manure is, without sounding biased, is the best manure to use, simply because

01:26 one, it's a cold manure. It doesn't need to be composted before being used. It can be used right

01:31 away, as well as the fact that it's very high in nitrogen and phosphorus, so you see an almost

01:37 immediate difference in your plants when you utilise rabbit manure on them. According to

01:42 Marketing Director Sean McLean, sights have been set on export markets and to attain this,

01:48 they've invested in mechanising the sector. AI services, which is the artificial insemination,

01:54 right, and that is our service that if the industry really has to increase and really has to blossom,

02:00 farmers will have to get into the technology and that is one of the things that we have done. We

02:06 have embraced technology. If your interest in rabbit farming has been piqued, McLean has one

02:12 simple advice. Start right in terms of, have an idea of your costs, right, don't just go into it

02:17 blindly. Have an idea of your costing. Have an idea of how much rabbits that you actually want

02:23 to produce in terms of your output. Definitely look at having a market, right, and your market

02:29 could be as simple as friends and family, people in the community. Both Austin and McLean, however,

02:34 lamented the cost and quality of feed available. They said swift improvements were needed if the

02:40 forecasted growth in the industry is to be achieved. Jesse Ramdeo, CNC3 News.

02:46 Green Thumb Tuesdays was brought to you courtesy the Agricultural Development Bank.

02:51 Growing stronger together.