The Royal Project Foundation has as the objective of improving the quality of life of people from the hill tribes in Thailand and of initiating sustainable development and food security in the mountainous areas. The project was established by His Majesty King Rama IX in 1969. The project has been setting up Development Centres in five provinces in the northern part of Thailand. The locations of the development centres are in the highlands near the borders of Myanmar and Laos, the lowest about 700 metres above sea level and the highest 1,300 metres above sea level (Angkasith, 2005). The project has been stimulating farmers from the hill tribes to cultivate sub-tropical and temperate crops, such as fruit trees, beverage plants, ornamental plants, field crops and vegetables. Livestock have also been introduced in a pattern of smallholder integrated farming systems. Integrated farming systems in these project areas mean that the farmer can use by-products or post- harvest residues to feed to their animals and use animal manure as fertilizer for the crops.
The rabbit raising in the project area was started by missionaries. Lukefahr and Cheeke (1990) mentioned that rabbits were first introduced into many developing countries by colonial settlers and missionaries. When the project started raising rabbits they had almost disappeared from the area. The rabbits that have been promoted to farmers by the project are of New Zealand White breed and crossbred New Zealand White and native breed; both breeds are of the meat type. The rabbit is a new alternative animal to be introduced to the farmers. The advantages of rabbit production are that the rabbits can be kept in small cages and can be adapted to a backyard rearing system, and the short time to produce meat using feeds of low cost as forages or agricultural by-products (Cheeke, 1986). Rabbit meat can play an important role for food security for the households as it is a high quality protein source for the family (Phimmasan, 2005) and can be sold in the local or the project market.
The most important problems in the project at present are
connected with the studies in Paper I and Paper II. The first
problem is the environmental pollution in the form of waste from
the crops produced. The waste from crop production consist to more
than 80% of vegetable waste from head lettuce, cabbage, spinach,
kale etc, and these wastes can be well utilized as feed resources
for livestock such as pigs and cattle, without any negative effect
on the animal (Mikled, 2005). The second problem is the natural
weeds in the cropping area, and in this case the interest is
focused on mimosa (Mimosa pigra). This weed is an uncommon
plant in the mountainous area and has probably spread by seeds
included in green fertilizer. The rapid spread of this weed has
become a complicating factor in land use management for the
farmers. Miller (1988) reported that the best method to control
this weed is by harvesting the plant for fire-wood or as feed for
animals by cutting before flowering and seeding. Many authors have
already mentioned the use of Mimosa pigra as animal feed,
for small ruminants by Vearasilp et al. (1981b), large ruminants by
Niemsup and Siri (1983) and pigs by Vearasilp et al.
(1981a).
The objectives for the present study were:
To evaluate the effect of feeding head lettuce
(Lactuca sativa) residue, mimosa (Mimosa
pigra), water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica) and Ruzi grass
(Brachiaria ruziziensis) to male and female rabbits
of 2 breeds (New Zealand White and crossbred New Zealand White x
native breed) on growth performance, feed intake and
digestibility.
To determine the effect of feeding head lettuce
(Lactuca sativa) residue and Mimosa pigra
compared to Ruzi grass on growth performance, feed intake,
production cost and net benefit for rabbits
on-farm.