Moses Gathua, a farmer based in Nakuru County, has lauded the Kenya Productivity and Agribusiness Project (Kapap) that has helped farmers especially in rural areas to adopt profitable crop and livestock production methods for improved livelihoods.
Kapap, a project funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock has benefited small scale farmers in Nakuru since its inception in 2004.
It has provided skills on livestock management, entrepreneurship, finance and cooperatives expertise and crop production.
Gathua, one of the beneficiaries of the project on Thursday said the project has helped him expand his rabbit farming, which now has over 200 rabbits, a business he revealed is his main source of income.
"I widely appreciate the efforts brought by Kapap in empowering rural farmers in the country, it is through their project that I can now feed my family with the 200 rabbits I keep. They have helped us farmers with professional guidance on how to improve our farming as well as better ways of realising huge profits in the business," Gathua said.
Gathua, a farther of two, also explained that he earns an average Sh80,000 a month from the sales of rabbits and their meat, in addition to selling rabbit skins to local tanneries where they are later processed to make belts, caps, wrist watches, shoe,wallets, handbags among other accessories.
"One kilogram of rabbit meat costs Sh300 while a packed one costs Sh550," he said.
"I had to leave my earlier business in a management firm to settle on rabbit keeping. It has not only helped me but many upcoming rabbit keepers among the youth and women who had their livelihood source tapped on the business," he stated.
The farmer also acknowledged the effort of the county government in providing support and assistance to rabbit farmers in order to grow and expand the business with most of his supplies coming from Trans Nzoia County.
'The County government has worked out ways of helping us get enough rabbits, not only for rearing but also for slaughtering so that we can sustain a steady supply of rabbit meat to our clients," he added.