Cebu’s Provincial YFC winner finds one of the keys to food security

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Created on Thursday, 23 June 2022

The world is searching for ways to increase food production and Reiner Dela Cerna, a 20-year-old veterinary student at Southwestern University seems to have the answer.

Reiner’s prize of the Young Farmer Challenge (YFC) competition in 2021 worth P50T thinks he invested his prize in the right project. YFC is a competition of the Department of Agriculture (DA) designed to seek excellent start-up business proposals for funding.

Being a veterinary student gives him the knowledge that cuniculture or raising rabbit meat has all the advantages of the low cost of investment and swift return on investment.

Cuniculture received attention when a private organization with the Bureau of Animal Industry drafted a rabbit industry roadmap in 2018 declaring the industry vision to be recognized as one of the major livestock industries in the Philippines.

DA Secretary William Dar explains in an online article by WhatALife, why rabbit meat? He said it is because a rabbit’s growth cycle is very short since they efficiently convert food into meat. They are prolific breeders, faster than pigs, goats, or sheep.

The same article quoted the United Nations sharing the fact that rabbit meat is highly nutritious, low in fat and cholesterol, and is rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals.

An article from Cebu Daily News in 2021 quoted Secretary Dar pushing rabbit meat as an alternative to pork, following the onslaught of the African Swine Fever that devastated the hog industry and affected the livelihood of most small-scale hog growers.

Its popularity is getting into the societal fabric, a good example is that some of the Tuburan folks are now buying rabbits from his farm for breeding and meat.

One of the advantages according to Reiner is that it won’t take long for an investor to get his payback. Based on his business model, with an initial stock of 2-10 heads in 2021, he now has 80-100 breeders. He said rabbits are not hard to raise they have low maintenance, and a doe can reproduce 6-12 rabbits in one cycle.

To maximize his income, Reiner is breeding pure Californian rabbits. Chinchilla, and Indonesian rabbit.

Reiner is making good money by selling breeders which range from P9T-P18T a pair. Now Reiner has 80-100 breeder stocks and the locals are buying from him to establish their rabbit farms.

The lowest-priced rabbits are the F series which start from P1.8-2.8T and can weigh as much as five kilos or P360 per kilo.

Talking about acceptability to the Cebuano palate, some restos are now offering delicious bunny lechon in the Queen City. Other menus for bunny meat include sisig, bola, lumpia, siomai, and calderetta. Health buffs are now turning to rabbit meat as one of the healthiest meats around.

As more and more people are getting health conscious, the demand for bunny meat or coney is expected to pick up.
Cuniculture could indeed be one of the ways for a food-secure Philippines.


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