How to Start Snail Farming Business in Nigeria-Snail farming is one of the most lucrative Agricultural businesses to engage in. It’s very profitable and not yet competitive as many farmers do not like to engage in it because they usually think is a difficult business to start.
If you have ever thought about starting a snail farming business and you do not know how to go about it, you’re in the right place just make sure you read this article till the end as I will be sharing with you all that you need to know about starting a snail farming business.
How does it Cost To Start Snail farming Business in Nigeria?
I know that one of the things that might have crossed your mind is the amount of money needed to start your snail farming business up and running.
One thing you should know is that the Snail farming business is not capital Intensive. Due to the ‘crawling nature’ of snails, a snail farm needs not be elaborate, hence; it can be built from the material you have around your house.
The amount needs to start your snail farm depends on how big you want your farm to be you can choose to start a small scale, medium scale, or large scale farm.
With a hundred thousand naira (N100,000 – 150000 Naira) only, you can begin a medium-scale snail farm that could gross in five times your initial investment.
Why Starting Snail Farm?
You may not totally agree with me that the snail farming business is very profitable. But the truth is that the demand for snails in Nigeria and in Africa is huge but grossly underrated.
Snails are a huge part of the diet in many parts of Africa, although they are not always affordable and available all year round. If you rear snail in commercial quantities, hotels, and fast-food restaurants, private individuals will be your regular customers.
For many years now, snails handpicked from the farm or bush have been the only way to get snails to the market and dinner table. Currently, the demand for snail is higher than the supplies, an indication that the market potential of snail is inexhaustible, locally and internationally.
Starting both small and large-scale snail farming businesses is the only way to fill up the spaces between the demand for snail and its supply in Africa.
How to Start Snail Farming Business in Nigeria
If you have finally made up your mind to start Snail Farming Business in Nigeria, here are some of the steps that you have to follow. Please ensure that you are very serious about it. As this is a business that can take you away from the trenches.
- Decide which species of snail to farm
- Set up your farmland for housing
- Purchase your snails
- Feeding and rearing of the snails
- Harvesting and selling of the snails
- Decide which species of snail to farm
When creating a snail farm one of the first major factors that you need to consider is the species of snail to farm. Research has shown that snail species such as Achatina achatina are the best for warm climate regions like Africa.
- Set up your farmland for housing
Building snail housing is one of the most difficult tasks in starting a Snail business. Once you have solved the issue of housing you are good to go. Remember that snail housing must have enough space for your snails to graze freely.
Not having enough farm space for your snailery impedes the development of snails and therefore should be avoided. A well-spaced snail housing reduces the risk of disease outbreaks caused by overcrowding.
You should keep in mind that snail is good at escaping from where they are kept, so you should construct escape-proof housing. You can use a pen house that will be spacious and accessible with a soil depth of 10 inches and trees around it.
- Purchase your snails
After you have considered the type of species of snail to farm and have built your farmhouse the next thing is to go ahead and purchase your snail.
You can buy quality snails from the market or any farm. It’s always best to be able to examine the snails before you buy them so that you know they are healthy.
I suggest you link up with someone that is already involved in the business so that he will guide you properly on where to get a good quality snail.
More Tips Start Snail Farming Business in Nigeria
- Feeding and rearing of the snails
Let’s assume that you have purchased your snails successfully the next thing to do is to provide good feedings for your snails.
Snails are vegetarians and can be fed with a wide variety of foods such as cabbage, cucumber, mango, banana, eggplant, pear, tomato and paw-paw, cassava, okra leaves, or lettuce. However, you can as well feed snails with pineapple, banana, or paw paw.
Mating and laying eggs are a vital part of snail farming. Typically, mating occurs during spring and summer. As hermaphrodites, snails can fertilize each other as soon as they are mature enough. In order for the egg-laying to go over smoothly, you should use high-quality soil with the right temperature and humidity.
- Harvesting and selling of the snails
It is not a good decision to harvest your snails before it’s maturity, it has to be mature before harvesting.
If you must succeed in this business do not harvest all the matured snails at once to sell in the market. It is important to keep few for breeding and to serve as base stock for your snail farm.
Snail has good market demand and price. You can easily sell the snails in the local market. The snail meat consumption rate is growing very fast around the globe. So, exporting to the international market can make you more money.
Conclusively, if you have done a proper market surveyor you will understand that snail farm is a very lucrative business idea and you have to get started immediately. Do not procrastinate about it. The good thing about is that it does not require 100 percent of your time and the market is always there for you. No competition at all.
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