CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelas government this week urged citizens to see rabbits as more than cute pets as it defended a plan to breed and eat them even as the opposition says this would do nothing to end chronic food shortages.

The Rabbit Plan is an effort by the government of President Nicolas Maduro to boost food availability. Authorities have also taught citizens to plant food on roofs and balconies of their homes.

Maduros adversaries dismiss such ideas as nonsensical, insisting the real problem is a failed model of oil-financed socialism that was unable to survive after crude markets collapsed.