THE HIGH PROFITABLE SNAIL BUSINESS
INTRODUCTION TO SNAIL FARMING
Heliciculture, also known as heliculture, commonly known as snail farming, is the process of raising land snails specifically for human use, either to use their flesh as edible escargot, or more recently, to obtain snail slime for use in cosmetics, or snail eggs for human consumption as a type of caviar.
Snail farming in Nigeria is considered to be one of the most lucrative agribusiness you can start with low capital. Yet, it is one of the most neglected animal rearing business in this country. Snail farming provides one of the finest opportunity to make money within a short period of time. But why are Africans not yet fully engaged in this money making animal rearing? The reason is ignorance.
Most people in Nigeria and Ghana still believe that snail can only be picked in the bush. The culture of going to the bush to pick snails in the villages during raining season has been there for generations. So, it is difficult for people to come to term that snail can actually be kept and grown at home.
Land snails belongs to the class of Molluscan, Gastropod. The one popularly known as ‘Congo Meat‘ in many parts of Africa. Nigeria – Eju, Igbin, etc… There are so many species of snails but the types we are looking at here are the ones that are suitable for commercial Snail Farming in Africa.
1. Achatina Fulica
The East African land snail, or giant African land snail, scientific name Achatina fulica, is a species of large, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Achatinidae.
Achatina fulica has a narrow, conical shell, which is twice as long as it is wide and contains 7 to 9 whorls when fully grown. The shell is generally reddish-brown in colour with weak yellowish vertical markings but colouration varies with environmental conditions and diet. A light coffee colour is common. Adults of the species may exceed 20cm in shell length but generally average about 5 to 10cm. The average weight of the snail is approximately 32 grams (Cooling 2005).
2. Achatina Achatina
Achatina achatina, common name the giant Ghana snail, also known as the giant tiger land snail, is a species of very large, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Achatinidae. Giant African land snails are hemraphrodites, meaining they possess both the female and male reproductive organs. Two snails are still needed for breeding, but they are very prolific breeders.
Similar to the other species in the genus, Achatina achatina’s shell can attain a length of 200 mm and a maximum diameter of 100 mm. They may possess between 7-8 whorls and the shell is often broadly ovate. The body of the animal is silver-brown in color although albino morphs may exist.
Achatina-Achatina is very good for commercialization as well, because of its profitability. This is because of the volume of eggs it lays at once. Each achatina lays 300 to 500 eggs at a time in clutches, three times a year. Therefore, if you start a farm with about 1000 snails, in one year you would be getting about 1.5 million snails going by the number of eggs they produces.
3. Archachatina Marginata
Archachatina marginata, common name the giant West African snail, is a species of air-breathing tropical land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Achatinidae. They can grow up to 20cm long, and live up to 10 years.
Among these three species, Achatina Achatina is the most desirable for farmers because it grows so big to become the biggest snail species in the world. Achatina Achaina has it’s origin from Nigeria, get to Liberia from Nigeria and then Ghana
BUILDING SNAILERIES (SNAIL HOUSE)
Snaileries can vary from a patch of fence-protected ground, sheltered from the wind to a covered box if you are breeding in small scale.
For larger population of snails, you can dug a trench or make a concrete pen with soil deep of about 10 inches, and cover it with screen or wire all around to prevent the snails from escaping. Remember that snails can reproduce fast and become pests when their breeding is uncontrolled.
Snails love dark and cold places, but make sure the humidity does not drop to levels harmful to the snails. You can use fresh leaves and cloth that is regularly wet to regulate the temperature.
Also, the wire is useful in keeping away rats and snakes or other predators from eating the snails in your snail farm. But aside from these bigger predators, you should be wary about smaller ones like ants and termites. Your construction must have these predators in mind.
Getting The Snails For Farming
To start up a snail farm, it is advisable to get snails directly from the forest instead of buying from the market after they have been exposed to sunlight and have dehydrated. This is because snails drink a lot of water, so are easily dehydrated and this stresses them out, and reduce their fertility capacity.
The intending snail farmer could pick the snails from the bush with a very simple technique; clear a little portion of land during rainy season and sprinkle spicy fruits like pineapple, pawpaw, plantain, banana etc at about 5o’clock in the evening, when you go back there about 7pm or 8pm, you will pick up snails suitable for rearing. Repeat the procedure until you get enough quantity.
Another way could be to pick up snail eggs littered in the market place where it is sold and through a technique, check the fertility of the eggs, because some of them must have lost fertility due to the exposure to sunlight. The eggs are later put inside a container containing wet sand and covered with cocoyam leaf. Between 21 to 28 days, the eggs would hatch into baby snails. You start feeding them and gradually you raise a snail farm.”
HARVESTING
Keep in mind that snails generally take about a year to reach maturity, and it’s best to not harvest snails prior to this stage. You can check for maturity by looking at the brim of a snail’s shell. If the brim is thicker and harder than the rest of the shell, then a snail is ready to be harvested.
Remain patient and take good care of your snails.
SNAIL FEEDS
Snails feed on many varieties of fruits and leaves, below are some of them that you can find cheap:
Leaves: Pawpaw, cocoa yam, cabbage lettuce, okra, eggplant, and cowpea.
Fruits: Pawpaw, mango, banana, plantain, eggplant, avocado pear, oil palm, tomatoes, cucumber, sweet orange, guava, pineapple, coconut, breadfruit, cashew, and watermelon.
Tubers: cooked cocoa yam, cassava and white yam, sweet potato.
Flowers: Pawpaw, sunflower, milk bush
Grains: ground maize, guinea corn, cereal
Industrial Offshoots: Wheat waste, rice, spent grains, maize, maize chaff, soya bean residue
Household Wastes: peels of banana, plantain, pawpaw, pineapple, cassava and rice, cowpea bran.
Food Concentrate: It should contain carbohydrate, protein, fats, Mineral (calcium) and Vitamins.
Water: Clean water should be available at all times. Avoid the use of chlorinated water (tap water) or water that ha been polluted with insecticides, herbicides or fungicides.
HOW MUCH CAN YOU MAKE
With N100,000 as start-up capital you can be making ₦5,000,000 annually in snail rearing if you do it well and get the whole process right. Moreover, you can start up without any money and still make huge profits.
CONCLUSION
You can agree with me that snail business is very profitable. It is less tedious (you can do it as part-time business), low startup capital, it has a huge demand and less competitive. Why not take that bold step and start doing this get-rich quick business.