SNAIL FARMING AND HOW YOU CAN START TO MAKE MONEY

SNAIL FARMING AND HELICULTURE

MATURED GIANT AFRICAN LAND SNAILS FOR SALE

Snails belong to a group of livestock called Micro-livestock as a result of small body size. They are invertebrate, cold blooded and nocturnal animal, and they are very active in the night and early in the morning. Snails need a cool environment for them to survive and grow very well. Mostly, snail can be found in the wild under leaves, stone or under woo debris. The entire body is made up of the shell which constitutes about 22 – 245, foot or the edible portion of about 30 – 40% of the body, visceral of about 20 – 23% of the body and liquid which makes up the remaining. The important of snail meat cannot be over emphasized because it is a good source of protein which is of about 18% crude protein of biological value. 

Opportunity exists to utilize snails as nutritious food. It contributes as source of valuable protein and source of income, especially for most small-scale farmers in rural area. The use of its product has been reported to work against inflammatory skin diseases, cold cough, bronchitis, catarrh and asthma. It has also been reported that snail prolong life expectancy in human due to the presence of Alpha-linoleic acid, which have a protective effect against cardiovascular disease as it prevents ventricular fibrillation and reduces platelet aggregation.

The production of snail (snail farming) requires less capital and space compare to poultry, piggery, rabbit production and other bigger livestocks. 

They are not aggressive like grass cutter and Guinea pigs, the management practices are simple and could be practiced by young and old people. The feed of snail is cheap and easily to come by.
However, all these and more of snails attributes make it easier to produce and market

Snail breed to rear are those that matures early

Snail breeds to farm should be those are a well adapted to the enviroment

 Factors Affecting Snail Farming

1. Snail Farming Environment - Snails are easily dehydrated, and wind increase the rate of moisture loose in snail which in turn, leads to the dryness of the animal. To prevent snails from losing water so quickly, your snaileries (the snail house) must be located in environment that is protected from wind. A low plain, downhill site surrounded with enough trees is perfect for snail farming. You may plant plantains and bananas around your snail farm to prevent the impact of wind.

2. Type of Soil For Snail Farm - Snail's major habitat is the soil, and soil contains some of the components and chemical substances that it needed to survive. However, not all soils are suitable for snail rearing. The shell of the snail is mainly calcium and it derives most of them from the soil. Snail also lay it's eggs on the soil and drink water out of the soil.  Hence, the suitable soil for snail farming must contain these elements.  Must be balanced, not waterlogged, not too dry, and must not be acidic. The most desirable soil for snail is sandy-loamy soil with low water holding capacity. Clayey soil and acidic soil must be avoided.

Snails are quiet and easy to rear animal,snails don't like noisy enviroments

3. Getting The Sails For Farming - 

To start up a snail farm, it is advisable to get snails directly from the forest instead of buying from the market after they have been exposed to sunlight and have dehydrated. This is because snails drink a lot of water, so are easily dehydrated and this stresses them out, and reduces their fertility capacity. The intending snail farmer could pick the snails from the bush with a very simple technique; clear a little portion of land during rainy season and sprinkle spicy fruits like pineapple, pawpaw, plantain, banana etc at about 5o'clock in the evening, when you go back there about 7pm or 8pm, you will pick up snails suitable for rearing. 

Repeat the procedure until you get enough quantity. Another way could be to pick up snail eggs littered in the market place where it is sold and through a technique, check the fertility of the eggs, because some of them must have lost fertility due to the exposure to sunlight. 

The eggs are later put inside a container containing wet sand and covered with cocoyam leaf. Between 21 to 28 days, the eggs would hatch into baby snails. You start feeding them and gradually you raise a snail farm."

4. The Snail House (Snailery) - Snaileries can vary from a patch of fence-protected ground, sheltered from the wind to a covered box if you are breeding in small scale. For larger population of snails, you can dug a trench or make a concrete pen with soil deep of about 10 inches, and cover it with screen or wire all around to prevent the snails from escaping. Remember that snails can reproduce fast and become pests when their breeding is uncontrolled. Snails love dark and cold places, but make sure the humidity does not drop to levels harmful to the snails. You can use fresh leaves and cloth that is regularly wet to regulate the temperature. Also, the wire is useful in keeping away rats and snakes or other predators from eating the snails in your snail farm. But aside from these bigger predators, you should be wary about smaller ones like ants and termites. Your construction must have these predators in mind.

5. Snails Foods and Feeding - Snails especially Achatina mainly feeds on green leaves and fruits though they can utilize other ranges of foods. Feed your snails leaves, fruits, or even formula from the feed store. Aside from food to grow tissues, snails need calcium to grow shells.
Leaves: Cocoyam leaves, pawpaw leaves, okra leaves, cassava leaves, egg plant leaves, cabbage and lettuce leaves.
Fruits: Mango, eggplant, pawpaw, banana, tomatoes, oil palm fruits, pears and cucumber.

Once they start growing, separate the big ones from the small ones. It takes more than a year for the Achatina type to grow to harvest size. Others mature in two years.
One million snails after a year or two sold at the rate of N50 each (highly reduced price) will give about N50 million! Isn't that a good investment?


Systems of  Snail Production and Housing

Snail advancing to feed on forage in the snail farm

Snail foraging in the snail farm

Snail farming Systems
There are three systems of production in raising snails. They are as stated below:

Extensive system: the snails are not provided with feeds and housing. They fend for them selves. Example is the ones gotten from the wild.

Advantage
The condition of the environment closely resembles the natural habitat of snails compared to other systems.
Low labour and low general management input i.e. inexpensive to maintain.
Thae farmer needs not purchase feed because it is already available in the snailery
There is no restriction in the movement

Disadvantage
Little control over the performance of snails
It requires a lot of land compared to other methods of production
Record keeping is difficult
Poor disease management
The snails are exposed to predators’ attack

Semi-intensive system: the system is like extensive system except that the snails are supplied with feeds besides what is given in the snailery.

Intensive system: this system involves the snail been fed with feeds brought to the snailery.

Advantage of Intensive system of snail farming:

• It is good for backyard or commercial farming
• Record on the performances of snails can be kept
• There is proper control over diseases and predators
• The management practices are simpke
• It can be practiced in the urban and rural areas
• The growth rate  could be influenced by introduction of formulated diets

Disadvantage of Intensive System of Snail farming
The snails can be stolen at once because of confinement which is very difficult in extensive system because the snails are scattered.
Under intensive system, snail could be reared in, tiers of tyre, basket, drums, cages, high fenced pen, low fenced pen and so on.

Snail Housing and Housing Patterns

Attributes of good housing for snails
It must be affordable
The materials for the housing must be available and affordable
It must be well ventilated
It must protect against predators and theft
It must be easily cleaned
Snails should not be able to escape from its unit


Factors to be Considered Before Siting the Snailery

The goal of the enterprise must be defined; that is, is the farming for business and profit maximization, consumption only or both.
Availability of capital, equipment and other resources.
Accessibility for easy transportation
The type of housing used
Readily available market
Environmental condition (Wind direction, temperature and humidity)
Soil type
Moisture content of the soil
Topography

Sourcing, Selection and Stocking
Where you can source for your snail foundation stock
Source of foundation stocks must be critically looked into because it determines the success of the enterprise. The snails for rearing could be purchase from:
1. Well established and reputable farms or farmers
2. Research institutes and university
3. Market
4. Direct from bush

Selection of Snailery sites and Location
Like other livestock ventures, the success of a farm depends in part on the quality of the farmer’s foundation stock. It is recommended that the farmer should choose based on the desirable characteristics below:
Good strong shell: strong shell, protect snails from their enemies. Snails with cracked shells or thin shell should not be selected for a snail farm.

Snails that fill their shell: this shows that the snail has not loss its body water. A snail that does not fill its shell may be sick or may have lost its water because of dry weather and may not grow well.
Fully-grown snail: they hardier and would produce eggs and baby snails earlier than immature ones.
Same kind of snail: the same kind of snail should be selected for the snail farm. The farmer may decide to use either of the African land snail (A. marginata  or Achatina achatina) or the exotic small types (Helix pomatia, Helix aspersa). Never rear a mixture of small and large type in the same enclosure because the requirements are not the same.

Snail Stocking Density
Stocking rate is the number of snails to be put inside a given dimension of a particular housing type. It has been established that performance of an animal is affected or depends on the stocking density. Only the right number of snails should be put in the pen. The stocking density of 15 – 25 mature snails/ m2 must be maintained. Over stocking or over population could lead to lower weight gain, poor shell formation and development, high mortality rate, reduction in number and size of the egg laid/snail, competition for feed, increased rate of spread of diseases and cannibalism.
The stocking density depends on :
Type of housing
Stages of production

Breeds of the Snail  to Rear

The optimum stocking density for various categories of snails are specified below:

1. Juveniles weighing 0.5 – 49 g = 100 snails/m2

2. Pre-adult snails weighing 50 – 100 g = 30 snails/m2

3. Adult snails of 100 g and above = 20 snails/m2

However, Table 10.2 shows the stocking rate for A. marginata at different stages of production.

Stocking rate for A. marginata at different stages of production.

Hatchlings
Grower
Adult
Breed
A. margianta
A. margianta
A. margianta
Age (Month)
1-3
4-6
7>
Weight (g)
20 – 60
20 – 45
120>
Stocking rate (snail/m2 )
40 – 60
20 – 45
10 – 15
Source: Omole et al., 2012

Feeds and Feedings of  Snails

Snails are voracious feeders and may consume about 10 times their body weight of leafy vegetable or plant material every day. To be successful in snail farming, the farmer must ensure a steady uninterrupted supply of foodstuffs to his snails throughout the snail growing season. 
Most snails eat a wide variety of food, some species more than others. Most fruit, tuber peels and vegetables will be taken.

Plant: food such as green leaves of Amaranthus, Cocoyam, Cassava tubers and leaf, lettuce, Cabbage, Fluted pumpkin, Hibiscus and so on.

Fruit: trees as shelter and food plants: some fruit trees provide shelter as well as food for snails. Examples are Banana, plantain, mango, pawpaw, sweet oranges, cocoa etc serve dual purpose of providing shelter as well as fruits. Snails prefer feeding on over ripe fruits of these trees. Ripe oil palm fruits, broken pods, seeds and seedling of cocoa, peels of yam, cocoyam, and cassava are also consumed by snails.

Other feeds snails also feed on convectional and compounded feed and diets containing a good amount of protein, calcium and phosphorus e.g. poultry marsh such layers’ marsh.
Feeding habit of snails: They are nocturnal and feed on a wide variety of feed mainly in the night, early morning, evening or on cool rainy day. Though, their activity level (including their rate of feeding) fluctuates with the ambient temperature.

Snail Reproduction and Reproductive Cycles

Reproduction In Snails
Snails are hermaphrodites, that is, they possess both the male and female reproductive organs just in one snail. This ensure cross fertilization to produce fertilized eggs. Their breeding season coincides with rainy season. During the breeding season, snails burrowed into the soil to the depth of 4 – 9 cm. the soil must be friable and moist but not overly wet. The snails also lay eggs in batches and the number of egg can range from 10 – 100 (s) depending on the species. For breeding purpose, old snails should not be used as they may not be able to produce fertile eggs and may have short life span for egg production.

Incubation of  Snail Eggs

Once the eggs are laid, they should be picked and placed in incubation pen or box. Appropriate temperature and humidity must be maintained by watering. The eggs should be placed on friable and moist soil and covered with soil. Watering should be done at least twice a day to provide appropriate temperature and humidity needed for successful hatching.

Hatchability of eggs depend solely on the soil/incubating medium temperature, humidity and composition. Provided the right condition is given, snailet or hatchling will emerge fro the soil/incubating medium within 18 – 30 days. 

The hatchling should be transferred into nursery pen and fed with succulent and protein us feed, vegetables and leaves. Constant supply of calcium supplement is needed for the indoor type of management system. This is important for the formation and development of shell. Because they are still tender and the shell not too strong, the hatchling should be handle with care.

Snail hatchlings feeding in the snail farm

Harvesting of Snails
Generally, snails that are well fed and manage would be ready for sale within 12 to 24 months from the date of stocking. The average weight of a well matured snail of the giant African land snail type is 200 g. growth rate is slow and lot patience hat to be exercised in snail farming. Harvesting is done by hand picking. Sometimes the snail hide under the cover of vegetation. Harvesting is best done in the morning and night when the weather is still very cool.
The harvested snail could either be sold or retained fro family consumption. The ones meant for sale should be cleaned properly and make sure that the shell is still intact or not damage. Snail can be stored in basket filled with saw dust or chipped maize husks for as long as 6 – 8 weeks.

Note
Snail predators: To  keeping off snail predators is a critical task in snail farming. Wood ash, neem or tobacco help to deter natural predators. 

Snailery should be sited close to the home so as to discourage theft.
Examples of snail predators are rat and mice, lizards and alligators, centipedes, shrews and moles, insect (ants) and beetles, birds, and frogs and toad.

Tips for successful snail farming

Adequate nutrition
Provision of optimum temperature, humidity and light
Appropriate stocking density
Regular watering
Appropriate soil medium with optimum pH
Good hygiene
Protection against predators and theft
Good selection of breeding stocks