Agricultural Empowerment | Enlightenment On Snail Farming

We all African especially Nigerians would known how snail farming in Nigeria is been considered as one of the profitable business in agriculture aspect but unfortunately it is many are yet to be enlighten on it there making it been neglected. As been considered, it is one of the great opportunities which could bring in good earnings in short time but ignorance has make it been neglected by African countries. In countries such as USA and Australia, this farming business have create lot of opportunities to lot of farmers and could be located in stores and even supermarket but it has been a believe by people in Ghana and Nigerians that snails can only be seen and picked from bushes which have make it more difficult for People to come realized snail can be rear in our various homes.

Snails came from the class Molluscan according to scientific research and it is popularly called different names such as Congo meat, eju, igbin. As we all known, different species of sail exist and we will be wondering which type of snail will be good for snail farming purpose in Africa or every where. Below you will be enlighten on what type of snail to look for.

Achatina Fulica

Achatina fulica as it is popularly called by scientists is known as the giant African snail, which is small in size among other snail species suitable for rearing. It possess a conical narrow-like shells which when viewed is double as long as the wide and when fully matured has 7-9 whorls

Achatina Achatina

It is popularly known as the Ghana giant snail and some call it giant tiger snail. They have the male and female reproductive organs thereby known as hermaphrodite, for breeding, two. Snails are still required. Their shell can reach 200 mm in length and a diameter of 100 maximum. They have 7-8 whorls and often a broad ovated shell which is silver-brown in terms of color. According to how their eggs are layed, it can lay 300-500 eggs at a time, let just say you started with about 1000 snails on this type, you would have calculate the outcome.

archachatina marginata

This is commonly known as the west African giant snail which can develop to 20cm in length and the most surprising part is that they can stay alive up to 10 years. Among the type of snail species mentioned, Achatina Achatina is the one most farmers desire because of its ability to grow more bigger than other snail. I will love to focus on Achatina Achatina and archachatina marginata here because it can be located easily here in Nigeria.

The environment that is suitable for snail farming.

We all Know that snails have some features which are not suitable which one of them is dehydration. They can easily be dehydrated due to wind which aid the lost of moisture in snails. To prevent water loss, the snail house (snaileries) should be located in an environment which is wind protected. A low plain downhill site which have lot of trees. Will be suitable for snail farming, and bananas or plantain can also be planted around the place which will be able to prevent the air

We looking at the soil which is suitable for snail farming, I do see many and before once try putting the snail on sandy soil and cover it up after pouring water and putting leave on the soil. It was just a surprise to me that the snail got dehydrated, I was wondering why until I make research before I could understand. I know many still practice that. We all Could have know that the soil is the major and vital place for a snail to stay because of some chemical constituent and component needed by the snail to survive. We should all know that not all the soils are actually good for snail because the calcium which majorly make up the snail shell is been derived from the soil, and also their eggs is been lay on the soil and drinking of water. A soil must be balanced, it must not contain too much water or lack water, and should not be acidic. Sandy-loamy soil is a the soil that is more suitable.

How to Get the Snail for farming

Getting the snail directly from the forest is one of the most advisable because the one from the market would have been more exposed to sunlight and the might have been dehydrated due to the fact that they do take lot of water because they are dehydrated easily and might decrease their fertility because of been stressed out. To get them from the forest, you can easily clear a little portion out during raining period and spread some spicy fruit such as banana even pawpaw and recheck back to pick the snails that are suitable, know that this can be carried out in the evening. You also take the snails egg from. Market, through some method you can easily check for their fertility because most would have been exposed to sunlight. Then put the eggs inside a wet sand and use cocoyam leave to cover it. Within 21 - 28 days it should have hatched, and you can start raising them.

Food And Snail Feeding

Fruits and green leaves are been fed upon by snails mostly Achatina but that does not mean they cannot feed on other types of food, feeding them fruits and leaves will aid their development and they also require calcium to develop their shells. They can feed on leaves such as pawpaw leaves, lettuce leaves, cassava leaves to mention few and fruit like banana, eggplant, pears even cucumber. Do not forget to separate the big from the small ones as they keep developing. Achatina can develop to harvest size within a year while others can use 2 years.

It is not advisable for farmers to harvest the snails when it is not full developed, to know if it matured enough, you can easily check the shell brim, if thick and hard enough from other shell part then it is matured for harvesting. Remember to Keep some behind for breeding purposes and not harvesting all matured snails.

We can take steps and start rearing snails because it is one of the most lucrative business which is yet to be discovered by many.

Authored by @valchiz

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