KIRINYAGA: Youths from Mwea East sub-county in Kirinyaga County are earning a living through rabbit farming, adopting a zero-waste model following high demand for rabbit meat and urine which they collect and use as foliar fertilizer to promote organic farming.
According to Kenya News Agency, rabbit urine is a valuable plant nourishment for farmers, serving as both a biofertilizer and a natural pesticide. It's rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, making it an effective way to improve soil health and promote crop growth.
The group of five university graduates, dubbed Favour Giants, located at Mugamba Ciura Village in Murinduko Ward, currently has over 300 rabbits which are kept in modern cages until maturity and sold in various eateries in different towns within and outside the county.
Stella Njagi, a project management graduate who manages the farm on behalf of the other members, reveals that the zero-waste model involves building modern structures which have installed pipes that collect urine. The structure is installed with drips for water supply to rabbits to promote hygiene as well as avoid dilution of rabbit urine with other water sources. The collected urine is packaged and sold to farmers.
The group intends to integrate more farmers and install Artificial Intelligence (AI) centers to help monitor rabbits and diseases as well as ensure farmers build the recommended structures in addition to diversifying to value addition of rabbit skins to make bags and shoes. "Moving forward, because we're looking into integrating more farms, we would love to integrate our farms with AI sensors so it becomes easy to monitor the rabbits, and in case there's a problem in any of our patterning farms, then they're able to be informed adequately," Njagi said.
The youth farm has various rabbit species ranging from Californian, New Zealand, Dutch, Angora among others where many people have started to embrace rabbit meat, which is a white meat and nutritious. The group is also involved in the integration of more youth to embrace rabbit farming in order to earn their living. "We're looking for how we can recruit more farmers, because we want to bring more income to our farmers and empower more women and youth, so we're looking into recruiting more farmers into our network," Njagi added.