How To Start Snail Farming Business
Snail Farming or Heliculture is the science of breeding edible land snails primarily for human consumption or cosmetic use. Snails being a hermaphroditic, by nature is capable of self-fertilization; meaning that each snail possesses reproduction organs of both the male and female. Snails reproduce fast; they can produce up to 300 eggs, which hatch into snails.
The meat and egg from snail are healthy to consume and has very high protein content while the mucus, known as slime contains medicinal properties principally used in cosmetics production. The good thing about snail meat is that it is low in fat, cholesterol and sodium while having iron, phosphorus and calcium. Snail is of many species; they differ in size and colour. For instance, there is the freshwater snail, Africa giant land Snail, Periwinkle etc.
How To Start Snail Farming Business
Snail farming is very popular and can be profitable too. Anyone can start a snail farming business since it has a low initial capital investment. It is one way of making money within a short period. Snail has a huge demand in a country like Nigeria because of its exceptional taste and dietary value. If you are ready to go into the business, I am ready to provide you with detailed explanation on how to go about starting it, procuring your initial breeds to housing them, feeding them and eventually harvesting them for profit
For snails to grow healthy, they have to be housed in the appropriate soil. The land on which you are going to put your snail should be sandy, loamy without keeping too much water. Clayey and acidic soil is not suitable for snail rearing and should be completely avoided
Snails are easily dehydrated because they lose moisture fast. Everything should be done to protect them from wind since wind increases the prospect of making them dry. The following steps will guide you through starting the snail business to marketing it for profit – the bottom line..
Step 1 Decide on your species of snail
Step 2 Construct the farmland for snails (Snailery)
Step 3 Procure your fresh snails
Step 4 Raising and feeding the snails
Step 5 – Harvesting and marketing of the snails
Cost of setting up snail farming business:
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Step 1 Decide on your species of snail
Snails are of different species ranging from a freshwater snail, small size snail, African giant land snail, to Periwinkle etc. you have to decide which is best suited for you. But if you choose to rear all of it, you must make different houses for them unless you don’t want them to grow properly.
By the way, I recommend land snail if you are setting up your snail farming business in Nigeria as it is a readily available and affordable source of animal protein. It is produced by snail farmers in large quantity and can be found in green forest and swampy areas of most developing countries including Nigeria,
Commercial snail rearing is now part of livestock farming as it offers great business opportunities to farmers. Snail farming is booming today; hitherto it was overlooked and not commercially recognized.
Step 2 Construct the farmland for snails (Snailery)
Choose suitable soil and environment that is conducive for the breeding of snails. To prevent the snails from dehydrating quickly, the snail farmhouse must be in wind-protected place. The environment must have many trees; cool and quiet.
Snailery is a very essential element in snail farming because it helps to keep the snail safe and productive. If you are going to have a big farm, you can make even a concrete pen and cover it up with an iron net to prevent the snails from relocating to another place.
The snail house must be dark and cold but ensure that the humidity doesn’t fall beyond harmful levels. Do use a wet cloth and fresh leaves to maintain the temperature during the period of the dry season.
Also, make sure the iron net is of the type that will keep rats and snakes or any other predators away from having access to the snails in the snail house. Be mindful also of other harmful predators such as ants and termites when putting up your Snailery as they can also harm the snails.
If on the hand you are a very small farmer, fence protected house, boxes or plastics but the wind must be kept at bay to avoid dehydration of the snails
Step 3 Procure your fresh snails
Now that you have set up a snailery for breeding snails, it is time to bring in some fresh snails to live in their house. There are three ways you can do this; you can collect snails from the forest, buy from the market or pick snail eggs from the market. The advantage of getting snails from the forest is that their freshness is guaranteed, they are of the same species, and they can grow healthily.
What you need to do is to pick snails from the forest is to identify the forest and make sure you have access to it in the night. Then clear a relatively small portion of the forest during the rainy season and in the evening of the night, you want to harvest the snails, spread spicy food for the snails (paw-paw, mango, banana, tomato cassava). In the mid-night, go to the same venue with big baskets and pick nails, small and big – repeat the process for many days. If you are a very small farmer, you would be able to pick enough for your farming.
If on the other hand, you are a big farmer, you can use this method to procure snails together with buying from the market to augment. You must be very careful to buy healthy, fully grown snails that will lay eggs immediately or soon afterwards to help populate your farm. Check the shell of the snail, if you see a lip, it shows that it is fully grown.
Another way you can adopt is that you can gather snail eggs found in the market place where the snails are sold. But for this method to be effective, you should check the fertility of the eggs, since some of them may have lost fertility as a result of the heat of the sunlight.
The eggs when procured are put in a container partly filled with wet sand and then covered with coco-yam leaves. Within the period between 21 to 28 days, the eggs would hatch and small snails are thereby produced. You will start nursing the baby snails, feed them and steadily they will develop into a full grown snail.
Step 4 Raising and feeding the snails
Snails eat mainly fruits and vegetables so are said to be vegetarians. They can be fed with wide varieties of fruits and vegetables such as cabbage, mango, cucumber, eggplant, banana, cassava, pear, tomato etc.
Fertilization and laying of eggs by matured snails are a vital part of snail rearing. In general, fertilization and laying of eggs occur during spring and summer. For the snails to have a hitch-free laying of eggs, you must have a high-quality soil with appropriate temperature and moisture.
Food provides the snail of the nutrient required for tissue growth. But apart from food for the growth of tissue, snails need calcium for the growth of their shells.
The following fruits are good for the rearing of snails: mango, paw-paw, eggplant, pawpaw, tomatoes banana, palm fruits, cucumber etc.
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Step 5 – Harvesting and marketing of the snails
It makes economic sense to harvest the snails at full maturity but not all the mature snails. The reason for this is obvious because snails’ farming is an ongoing exercise, so some mature snails should be reserved for further breeding of future snails.
To be sure that the snails are matured before harvesting is to check the brim of the shell if the brim of the shell is firmer and thicker than other parts of the shell, it is firmly established that the snails are matured. Then they can be harvested and sold off.
The harvested snails can be sold at competitive prices since the consumption rate has gone up sharply in the last few years throughout the world. The market for snails is booming both locally and internationally. There is a market for any quantity that can be produced in a particular year, so keep on increasing production, if the local market is ever going to be saturated, the excess can be marketed in the international market.
It is advisable to harvest the snails during wet weather. Harvesting is best performed weekly, during the periods of autumn and spring. After the collection is done, put the gastropods in the cage for a week for the digestive system to be relieved of the soil. While this process is ongoing, the snails will neither be given food nor water. The snails can survive for two months if the temperature is adjusted to as low as 5 degrees and the environment under which the snails are kept is sufficiently cool.
Cost of setting up snail farming business:
You can go into the production of snails with as little capital as ₦100,000 even less. The good thing about snail rearing is the low start-up capital, a huge market for the final product and more importantly, it is very profitable. The start-up cost includes some mandatory expenditure such as snail house, procurement of fresh snails, feeding, transportation, handling and processing of the products before marketing.
For start-ups, drawing a business plan will give you a good understanding of the journey you are about to embark on and also guide you in the implementation of the business strategy which is crucial for the success of the snail farming business. The best period to begin this journey is during July and October; this is the period snails begin to lay eggs and multiply in numbers.
Tips on breeding snails:
- Type of soil – this is crucial since the quality of the soil where the snails are housed can make a success or mar the business.
- Pests And Diseases – all forms of predators (lizards, rats, snakes, geese etc.) should be kept at bay as much as possible.
- Snails’ source – the source from where fresh snails are procured at the start-up must be from the right place. Picking the snails from the forest is the best source but can also be gotten from the market but great caution must be exercised.
- The environment where snails are kept – because snails are prone to hydration, the location should be kept away from the direction of the wind.
- Temperature and humidity – snails survive at moderate temperature and high humidity. So areas, where forests are relatively undisturbed, should be preferred.
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Ultimately, edible snails are not reared for commercial purposes only, they have some health benefits too; they are great sources of protein and iron and also they are used in cosmetics production.