Livestock Research for Rural Development 24 (6) 2012 Guide for preparation of papers LRRD Newsletter Citation of this paper Social acceptability of rabbit meat and strategies for improving its consumption in Ekiti State Southwestern Nigeria F A S Dairo, H M Abi and F M Oluwatusin* Department of Animal Production & Health Sciences, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. fasdairo@yahoo.com * Department. of Agricultural Economics & Extension, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. Abstract Eight local council areas were randomly selected out of 16 that exist in Ekiti State, Nigeria and 240 respondents were administered structured questionnaires and personal interviews. The study examined the acceptability of rabbit meat, socio-economic characteristics of rabbit farmers and rabbit meat consumers. Results showed that 0.80% of the respondents raised rabbit only, 17.1 % were rabbit meat consumers and 60% indicated awareness of rabbit production. About 66.7% of the respondents produced rabbits for sales while 29.6 % raised them strictly for meat consumption. The order of preference for rabbit meat consumption is farmers > traders > civil servants > artisans > students and relished for its palatability. Feedstuff used is in the order of forage > kitchen wastes + forage > kitchen wastes > pellet + forage. Bamboo/wood cages constituted 65.8% of housing type, wood cages reinforced with wire mesh (32.9%) and welded iron cages (1.3%). Labour was sourced mainly from the family (96.30%) with no credit facility. Production challenges identified were housing, diseases, non-availability of breeding stock and lack of government support. The establishment of “Rabbit Farmers’ Co-operatives” at local council level, intervention of other public and private agencies with proper coordination of inputs supply coupled with road show campaign will improve production, social acceptability and rabbit meat consumption in Ekiti State. Key words: Awareness, farmers’ co-operatives, government, road show Introduction The intake of animal protein in Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs) such as Nigeria has been documented as grossly inadequate (FAO/WHO/UNU 2002) and means of improvement is also subject of interest to nutritionists. The animal protein content of a typical Nigerian diet is about 17% of the total food protein, which is lower than 60% in the United Kingdom and 71% in New Zealand (World Bank 2001). Enilolobo and Aromolaran (2007) reported that vegetable protein constituted over 83% and 75% of total protein intake for rural and urban dwellers respectively in Ogun State located within the same geographical zone as Ekiti State in Nigeria. Poverty reduction and food security challenges in terms of provision of high quality meat for the significant proportion of Nigerian population is one of the Millennium Development Goal’s (MDG) aimed at improving the living standard of the citizenry (UN 2009). Backyard rabbit production has been identified as a simple enterprise for modest income, and upgrading of family diets (Lukefahr 2007). Therefore, it has been proposed as one of the means to bridge gap of inadequate intake of animal protein (Omole et al 2005; Dairo 2008). Rabbit has good quality meat of high protein and health values (Lukefahr 2007). Its noiseless Social acceptability of rabbit meat and strategies for improving its consu... file:///C:/Users/Public/Documents/OLUWATUSIN RESEARCH WORK... 1 of 9 10/22/2014 8:53 PM