integrating optimum rabbit production into smallholder farming systems can contribute significantly to addressing the issue of food security
By 2050 rabbit production should be one of the leading contributors to global food security because of evidence-based outstanding attributes
Written by Clovis Kabaseke
Lead Applicant Organization Name
MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON UNIVERSITYLead Applicant Organization Type
- Large company (over 50 employees)
If part of a multi-stakeholder entity (i.e. team), provide the names of other organizations and types of stakeholders collaborating with you.
MPAN'GAME CLUB FOR INTEGRATED NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENTWebsite of Legally Registered Entity
www.mmu.ac.ugHow long have you / your team been working on this Vision?
- 1-3 years
Lead Applicant: In what city or town are you located?
FORTPORTALLead Applicant: In what country are you located?
UGANDAYour Selected Place: what’s the name of the Place you’re developing a Vision for?
UGANDAWhat country is your selected Place located in?
UGANDADescribe your relationship to the place you’ve selected.
Uganda is my home country, it is economy is based on agriculture mainly carried out by small scale farmers who are poor and many are malnourished because they can not meet the cost of high protein foods like meat, the soils of their farms have lost fertility due to over cultivation and they can not afford chemical fertilizers. Besides, Uganda has fragile ecosystems like mountains, water bodies, wetlands with a lot of biodiversity which are being destroyed by use of chemical agro-inputsDescribe the People and Place: Provide information that would be helpful for an outsider who has never been there and may have no context about this Place to better understand the area.
The video is showing the testing of the Mpan'game which is a participatory tool designed by Mountains of the Moon University under a European funded project "AFROMAISON". It is a tool for community sensitization about catchment dynamics in a society whose major activities are agro-based in order to help them design their own catchment management plan.What is the estimated population (current 2020) in your Place?
40000000Challenges: Describe the current (2020) and the future (2050) challenges that your food system faces.
Land fragmentation responsible for subsistence farming, malnutrition due to lack of balanced diet and adequate food, environment degradation through deforestation, water pollution, wetland reclamation, poor crop yields due to soil fertility decline (2020); Stiff competition for limited food by a very high population, unsafe food because of chemical pollution,; very high prices of livestock products because of high production costs, poor food because of effects of climate changeAddress the Challenges: Describe how your Vision will address the challenges described in the previous question.
Keeping rabbits will therefore not only provide large amounts of nutritious healthy meat but will upscale the production of organic horticultural crops that also provide essential nutrients to humans. Characteristics of rabbits such as small body size (thus low daily feed requirements), short generation interval, high reproductive potential, rapid growth rate and the ability to utilise forages and fibrous agricultural by-products are attributes in favor of rabbit production (Cheeke, 1986). Rabbit production is an enterprise that can be afforded by everyone and which can be very convenient for smallholder farmers who make the majority in the larger portion of the globe.High Level Vision: With these challenges addressed, now provide a high level description of how the Place and the lives of its People will be different than they are now.
People will be able to raise rabbits at every house hold level to access cheap but healthy rabbit meat, they will be able to sustain soil fertility on their farms for improved horticultural production by using rabbit manure, they will sell rabbits and horticultural products to get money to buy necessities they can not produce on-farm,they will not encroach on protected to hunt wild meat as they will be having their own on-farm, their water bodies will be less pollutedFull Vision: How do you describe your Vision for a regenerative and nourishing food future for your Place and People for 2050?
1. Client-specific research to be done to find solutions to the constraints known to be impeding rabbit production especially with smallholder farmers of the developing world e.g. appropriate rabbit feeds, proper rabbit housing, pest and disease management, use of rabbit manure to enhance horticultural production 2. Community sensitisation as a way of changing the mindset of communities who only look at keeping rabbits as pets and not as food 3. Establishing demonstrations for proper rabbit management and value addition 4. Developing practical curricula for teaching rabbitry at different levels of education 5. Developing marketing strategies for rabbit products to ensure conducive and reliable rabbit marketsHow did you hear about the Food System Vision Prize?
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