In today’s article we are going talk about Commercial Snail Farming in Nigeria , and we are also going to answer questions like
What is snail farming
What are the benefits of snail farming
Factors to consider before starting snail farming
How Profitable is Commercial Snail Farming in Nigeria
What is Snail Farming
Snail farming is the rearing and multiplication of snails for meat purposes. Let’s look at the benefits of snail farming
Benefits of Commercial Snail Farming in Nigeria
Source of protein
Snail farming is a very good source of protein. As we all know protein is very essential in our everyday diet, adding snails to our daily diet provides us with enough protein needed in our body system.
Source of finance
Snail farming has being a good source of income to farmers. Snail farming can give you a lot of returns and multiply your units within a space of one year. With as little as hundred snails for a start you can make up to five thousand snails within the space of one year that is how fast snails multiply. You can have more than that amount depending, I have a friend that started his snail farming with a thousand snails and in less than a year he had 15 to 20,000 snails in his farm, so talking about monetary aspect snail farming is something that can bring good income to your pocket.
Health benefits
Snails have a lot of health benefits and are known to give important vitamins to the body. Snails are also cholesterol free and will never give you fats no matter the quantity you eat. They also give nutrients and minerals like the omega 3 and the water in snails is also good for hypertensive patients.
Cosmetics
The slime in snails is used in cosmetic industries for producing makeup and other cosmetics for ladies.
Commercial Snail Farming in Nigeria – How to start
There are few things you need to consider before you can start your snail farming:
1. Structure
There are basically two types of structures you can choose from:
- Pen structure
This is more secured because everywhere is plastered and you won’t have soil insects disturbing your snails. It is recommended to use plastic or thatch roof when building your pen structure to avoid the heat generated by zinc
- Free range
This is not as secured as the pen structure because you will have soil insects that might disturb your snails. This means you will have to comb your farm everyday to make sure there are no insects. The free is also beneficial because it will save you a lot of cost in terms of feeding. Because most times the snails feed on the plants present in the farm. Breeding is not tampered with and multiplication is faster in the free range.
Requirements for commercial snail farming in Nigeria
The items you will be needing for your snail farm structure includes:
- Galvanize pipe
- 2 by 2, 2 by 3 planks
- Net (to prevent escape of snails)
- Cement/blocks
These requirements is applicable to both free range and pen structure of snail farming:
2. Breed
In choosing your snail breed. It is recommended to go for point of lay i.e snails that lay eggs. Because snails have being known to die for no reason they could just die without any cause. So that’s why it is advisable to go for layer snails so before die they might have laid enough eggs to replace them when they die.
3. Management
The person that is going to manage the farm. If you are doing it on a large scale you can employ workers that will manage the farm and pay them.
Soil and Climate type in Snail farming
4. Soil type
The soil type is also an important factor to consider. It is recommended to rear your snails in a loamy soil because loamy soils are soft due to the water present in it. And will allow the snails to move in and out of the soil. Imagine rearing your snails in a clay soil and the soil dries up it will trap the snails, especially the eggs because they are laid underneath the soil and when the hatch they won’t be able to find their way out of the soil.
5. Climate
if the climate in your area is not favourable. You can build your own snail structure, and put your own air conditioners so that it will be cool because snails perform maximally in a cool environment. After building your farm structure you can plant plants like cocoyam, dwarf bananas and potato vines. Because these plants are short and won’t exceed the height of your structure. These plants are also important because they will prevent directly light from the sun on the snails and allow the snails to hide beneath them during the day time.
See Also: The Ultimate Guide To Starting a Poultry Business in Nigeria
Problems of snail farming in Nigeria
When starting your snail farming from time to time you might see some dead snails in your farm. That doesn’t mean your farm is not doing fine and you can’t say it’s as a result of a particular disease, but be sure that the rate at which they are dying is nothing compared to the rate at which they are reproducing. Let’s say you have like a thousand snails and within the space of few weeks you over 300 or 400 dead snails, just know that there is something wrong with your farm but if it’s just 10 or 20 dead snails in a month and you are having up to 5000 eggs from these snails just know that your farm is doing very fine.
How lucrative is snail farming in Nigeria
If you want to turn your snail farming into a business and get good results. You have to spend lots of money in it because you will need constant power supply, constant water supply, conducive environment and a very large quantity of breeding stock because the larger the quantity the more the growth rate.
The number of snails you have in your farm grows geometrically. Starting with a hundred snails gives you five thousand in a space of nine months that are ready to lay eggs, in the next year one thousand eggs will give you twenty thousand eggs now multiply it with five thousand eggs you be having over hundred thousand eggs in the next year. If you are patient and keep feeding your snails you will be getting five thousand snails every month that are matured for the market.
So if you have like 1000 snails ready to be supplied to the market every month and one jumbo size snail is sold for N800. Multiply that with 1000 snails, you will Make 800K Monthly As a Snail Farmer in Nigeria just by selling snails. Imagine if you can have up to 4000 to 5000 snails every month ready to be supplied to the market imaging how much you will be making every month. Mind you nothing good comes easy it takes patience, hard work and a lot of efforts and sacrifices to get to that level. All the same if you thinking of starting your own snail farming today I wish you maximum success in your business.
Checkout: 12 Most Lucrative Businesses To Start in Nigeria With No Capital