Rabbit production have been raised in small household extensive
systems in Vietnam for many years. Rabbit production is popular in
rural areas and is considered to be a self-sufficient system with
low productivity. In the recent years, (specialist after bird flu
happened in Vietnam) Rabbit production has been paid more attention
by farmers and Government agencies as a means to improve the
income of the rural poor. So some achievements have been obtained
in the field of breeding, nutrition, processing, preventing
diseases... The population of rabbits has increased at over the
last 10 years from 1,200,000 heads in 1995 to 6,820,000 heads in
2005, an average annual rate of increase of about 5.7% . During
this time, the price of rabbit products has increased to from
8,000 to 35,000 VND/kg live weight rabbit meat . Local indigenous
breeds of Re Rabbit and Black rabbit and Grey Rabbit have been
found to perform well under improved management conditions. Some
new rabbit breeds have been imported from Hungary (New Zealand
White Rabbit, California Rabbit; Panol Rabbit) with a view to
crossing with local rabbits to improve meat production in local
rabbits. A series of studies using local feed resources and
strategic disease control measures were carried out in the context
of developing Sustainable and Integrated Small ruminant farming
systems. These studies showing that up to 23% improvement in
productivity can be achieved by such techniques. Some programs and
projects have been carried out with the joint support of the
Vietnamese Government and International organizations, and have
resulted in highly successful outcomes.. In 2006 a new Rabbit
breeding station belong to GRRC has been setup with 3000 rabbit
does to produce 120,000 rabbit breeds to provide for farmers
raising per year It is clear that Rabbit production can play
an important role in improving the incomes for poor farmers in the
rural areas and is contributing to poverty and hunger alleviation
in Vietnam. The review discusses some of the research findings to
come from GRRC research over the past 10 years, and proposes the
current research activities should now be extended into all areas
of Vietnam as means of increasing farmer income and alleviating
hunger and poverty.