There is a huge scarcity of rabbits in various villages in Gatundu North following a spike in demand for their meat by Chinese nationals building the multi-million Karimenu dam in the area.
With the bad attitude about rearing rabbits by most locals, the few farmers who have been in the business have run out of stock and are now forced to buy from farmers in far-off areas.
According to Gicia Kahu who has been supplying the Chinese nationals 30 to 50 kilograms of rabbit meat weekly, the Chinese nationals love the meat owing to its soft nature and good taste.
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He said that while most farmers have abandoned the farming that has employed him for years yet they decry scarcity of job opportunities, rabbit meat is very marketable even in other areas outside the expansive constituency.
"We are now forced to look for rabbit meat from as far as Naivasha," he said.
The father of three who has educated all his children through rabbit farming that has also enabled him to buy a car said that, unlike the fallacious belief that rabbit keeping is done by small boys, anyone can venture into the lucrative business and earn a living.
While urging farmers to form cluster groups for training, Kahu stated that the business, if taken seriously, will help eradicate the high uptake of outlawed substances that have rendered tens of youths in the area into zombies besides resulting in family breakups and delayed marriages among men.
"We so many people here including graduates who are roaming in search of job opportunities. I tell you for a fact that rabbit farming is the best way out of poverty and it's a job that does not dust you," he added.
Unlike other forms of farming such as the rearing of dairy cows, the farmer revealed that rabbit farming is easy, less time consuming and requires less capital to start and urged the youth to move with speed and venture into the business for their economic well-being.
