Snail farming

Snail meat has been severally affirmed to be a most safe and nutritious delicacy. In these days of increased coronary complications and other health implications, snail producers are certain to hit it big because more people are shunning beef or red meat.
It is also pleasing to note that snail production could be started with a little financial capital.

According to a seasoned snail farmer, the best period to commence snail farming is the raining season. You do not need much to start; you can do it as a complement to whatever business or income opportunity you already have on ground. It is especially desirable for a new entrant into the venture to start small. This is without regard to whether you have a lot of money at your disposal or not; the smaller you start the better.

 It is advisable that you start with just about 50 or 60 snails so that you can get experience firsthand before you go full blast. When you are getting your start up stock, experts advise that you should not buy small or baby snails but to go for the big and fully matured ones -the African giant snails are recommended. The reason is that this affords you the opportunity of ensuring that the specific species you are using are good enough and you are sure of the potential size of the offspring.

You can get these snails from foodstuff markets all over the country, from snail farmers or from villages and countryside. Start-up requirements You need to prepare a place for the snails to live. A small piece of land behind your house would suffice. You can even start from your flowerbeds. However, you have to use chicken and mosquito nets, as well as planks to make a fence. It is however more desirable to use iron in place of wood for durability. The space should also be covered in order to prevent natural enemies of snails like lizards, mosquitoes etc from having access.

You are also advised to plant things like waterleaf and cocoyam around their pens to serve as food and to balance the ecosystem. Snails are sold in bunches of 20 pieces each and price depends on size -the bigger sizes are sold for between N1,800 and N3,000 per bunch. It is better to buy the big ones so that you can expect them to hatch after about 35 days on location.

About N20,000 to N30,000 should get a new entrant started in the business and then grow bigger later provided space is available. Snails feed mainly on leaves, fruits and organic maters like waterleaf, water, cocoyam, plantain, carrot, pawpaw, tomato etc depending on what is in season. The business is good for anybody with the interest and space required. Not much physical labour is involved.

 Marketing

Selling your products should not pose a big challenge; you can sell to hotels and restaurants, individuals or market women. You can even send abroad if you have enough or buy from other sources to have enough stock for export.

It is an open secret that snails reproduce rapidly and in a rather prolific manner too. You start making money after about three to six months. After two years or thereabout of being in the business, your initial capital should be giving you about ten times return quarterly if you are resourceful.