Snail farming business is one of the ‘secret millionaire business’ in Nigeria though not as popular as many other lucrative businesses.
If you are interested in starting this business; what I am going to share here below is complete guide to starting a lucrative snail rearing business in any locality.
Snail rearing also known as heliculture is the breeding, raising and production of snails. Snails are useful for their meat served as several local and international delicacies, their shell are used for pharmaceutical purposes and also crushed for animal feed because of its rich source of calcium.
Reasons why snail farming is a lucrative Business
Environment: Snails are environment-friendly, because, unlike poultry or pigs, neither the snail nor its droppings smell offensively. Snails can also be reared in the backyard, little spaces and a small garden.
Inputs: Capital, technical, labor and financial inputs in simple snail farming are relatively low compared to those in other types of livestock farming (poultry, pigs, goats, sheep, cattle).
Snail meat: Snail meat is a good source of protein. It is rich in iron and calcium, but low in fat and cholesterol compared to protein sources from other livestock.
Climate: Without expensive artificial means of climate control, snail farming is restricted to the humid tropical forest zone, which offers a constant temperature and high relative humidity.
Cultural restrictions: Snail meat is considered a delicacy by some, whereas others will not even touch it for religious or cultural reasons.
Growth: Snails are relatively slow-growing animals. Furthermore the consumable meat makes up only 40% (maximum!) of the snail’s total live weight. Consequently snail farming is not a way to make money quickly!
Starting a Snail Farming In Your Locality
The following stages need to taken into consideration when starting a snail rearing business anywhere in the globe;
- Planning: Any business started without adequate plans is an accident waiting to happen; you need to prepare for how you intend to go about the production, marketing and organization.
- Production and Sales: Define the reasons why you intend to start a farm (personal or commercial?), what is your end goal? How many snails do you intend to produce? How many do you intend to sell?
- Investment: How much do you plan to put invest in it? How much profit do you intend to make?
- Technical know-how: Learning the life cycle of snails, how they interact with the environment and how to set up ideal conditions to breed snails.
- Facilities: You will need to brainstorm the environment you plan to breed you snails, the location, feeds and equipment you plan to use to achieve optimum results.
- Market: If your intention is for commercial purposes, you need to understand the market value for snail farming. How much you stand to gain from snails and how to target high end clients and customers. Don’t start snail farming if you do not have a market for it.
Factors to Consider When Starting a Snail Farm
1. Site Selection
Starting a venture in snail farming requires space. Your backyard, indoors or open-lands can all be used depending on the scale. The soil is a major part of a snail’s habitat. Soil composition, water content and texture are important factors to consider in site selection. The soil should be humus or loamy that can support vegetable growth. It must be rich in organic matter and not water-logged or acidic. If your snailery is too wet or water-logged, it would encourage the development of harmful bacteria and fungi. The site should have a flat topography (flat land surface), with adequate shade. Snails do good in environments which provide cover, moisture, and food. They will however do great in one that closely mimic their natural habitat.
2. Climatic factors
Snails are easily dehydrated, and wind increases the rate of moisture loss in snail which in turn, leads to dryness for the animal. To prevent snails from drying out, snaileries (snail house) should be situated in sites that are protected from wind. Also, the temperature and humidity in the area should be moderate.
3. Snail Pen
The type and dimensions of your snailery depend, largely on the snail growing system you choose, and on the quantity of snails you intend to produce. The age of snail, temperature, location, weather, and flooding vulnerability are all factors to consider. Generally, your snailery must be spacious, well protected from insects and predators, easily accessible for carrying out management activities, and prevent snails from escaping.
4 . SOURCE OF SNAIL
Snails can be picked from nearby bushes after a rainy day (especially at night when they come out to feed). Snails can also be gotten from the bush using this technique; clear a small area in the bush and spread fruits like plantain, pineapple, banana, or pawpaw in the cleared area at about 4pm-5pm in the evening. Come back to the cleared spot when it gets dark (7pm-8pm), and you will pick up snails suitable for farming. This process can be repeated until you are satisfied with the number you have gathered. An alternative to the method above is to buy giant breeders from existing snail farms or dealers. However, if you are starting with breeders alone, you must make plans for hatching your eggs.
5. Feeds and Feeding of Snails
Snails feed mainly on leaves, fruits, flowers, tubers, and household waste (peels of fruits and tubers like pawpaw, pineapple, yam, and potato). Plants that has hairy leaves or produce toxic chemicals are avoided by snails. Snail needs regular supply of calcium and phosphorus for shell formation, good health, and maximum production. This can be found in calcium carbonate, egg shell, bone meal, oyster shell, etc.
6. Harvesting
Snails in the forest take up to 2 years to mature, but correctly farmed snails can be ready for sell in 6-8months under favourable environmental condition and good feed. As a means of identification, the brim of the shell of a mature snail is usually thicker and harder than other parts of the shell. When harvesting your snails for sale, do not harvest all the mature ones. Few should be kept for breeding to serve as base stock.
7. Pests and Disease
Pests that feed on snails include; mice, rats, frogs, crows and domesticated birds such as ducks and turkeys, lizards, snakes, millipedes and centipedes.
Fungal and bacterial diseases are the only snail diseases that have been identified. This is spread through physical contact by the snails licking slime from each other’s bodies. Some sanitary measures can be taken to prevent the spread of disease in your snail farm.
8. When to Start Snail Farming
From June all the way to October are the best months of the year to start a snail farm. These months have something in common. Yes! Your guess is as good as mine. It is Rain! Rainfall during these three wettest months drive out Giant African Snails from their period of aestivation in the forests. This increase in supply during the rainy season, makes the price of snails stable in the market, your local fast-food, snail farms and even on your plate. However, Prices usually increase from December to March when snails are in short supplies. During this period, hotels, restaurants, resellers, and other snail lovers will beg you to supply them.
9. Capital
I know you are surprised to see capital appearing as the last object for consideration. The upside of snail farming business is that you can start with almost “any amount”. Materials needed for snail farming does not cost much. The only thing that may cost you little money is the construction of snailery or maybe you want to by feed supplement (limestone, bone meal etc.). For a more sophisticated farm, this should be given consideration.
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