My Snail farming; my hobby, why started it!
I am Mnkong Emmanuel Saah, resident in a Community where one can't "put all his eggs in one basket". I left my home town Kumbo in the crisis striken English speaking section of Cameroon. Having left everything behind to seek refuge in Mankon Bamenda, still in an area where insecurity has not spared. What would it have me do, when I forfeited my job in my home town just to to live, but found out that living was far from it, but "survival of the feettest ". And to survive, I had to do odd jobs just to have a shelter and put food on the table for my family. One day I came across a post on facebook, where somebody advertised a training session on snail farming. I quickly click on the link, and it took me to his whatsapp page and I immediately registered for the online training. And attended the classes, and immediately started my own small snail farming. I realized I had to do something, adding to the odd jobs I was doing. And Snail farming came as "God answered prayers". I wish to share with my STEEMIT Space Community friends, what it takes to rear snail. And how beneficial it can be, both commercially and for domestic use.
Permit me make a brief Introduction of what snail farming is:
Snail farming is professionally called Heliciculture. The process of raising eatable or edible land snails, primary for human consumption or cosmetics use called snailery or snail farming. The meat and eggs from snail can be consumed as edible dish which is very good for the health, because of its nutritive value.
And the slime from snail, "that slurry substance" is highly sought after in the cosmetics/beauty industry. That classy cream you apply, most of them are made from snail slime.
How you can start your own snail farm:
First you have to identify snail breeders in your locality. Do not buy from the market because snail from the market can't easily adapt to the environmental changes. Buy from local breeders because they can help in giving or selling you the best specie of snail to farm.
How you can start your own Snail Farm:
You can decide to train your snail in an ordinary land/bucket/drum/tyres etc. That's why snail farming is the best, as it is stress-free and you can start out from anywhere. And the advantage here is that snail excrement is odourless. It doesn't smell at all, unlike chicken poultry farm where your neighbours can start complaining of the bad smell. Snail is just too good because you can even do it behind your backyard. You can start with hatchings (baby snails) but it is good to start with point of lays ( mature snails), so they can lay you, 100 eggs each. And then you hatch them into snails, as such you can have a big farm without stress.
As an experienced farmer, there are three different species of snails I will like to recommend to any Community member who may want or like to farm or rear snails.
Permit me start with; The Achatina Maginata (AM) is also known as the giant African land snail or banana rasp snail. Pictorially the Achatina Maginata has a short antenna on the head, and is one of the largest known land snails in west Africa. And is considered a delicacy in Africa and the international market because of the high nutritional value. It grows faster within a shortest possible time with high egg laying traits. Achatina Maginata is highly recommended for rearing in Africa; Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Cameroon, Morocco etc.
Other species of snails you can farm are; the Achatina Fulica ( AF) and the Achatina Achatina (AA). Pictorially, the Achatina Fulica. The Achatina Fulica has a long antenna on the head. And the Achatina Achatina, has small shell and they always cling together.
What is snails food?
It is very easy and less costly to feed snails. Snails feed on leaves, pawpaw fruits and leaves, cocoyam leaves, Okro leaves, dandelion, cassava chaffs, cabbage, banana leaves etc. Note should be taken that salt should never be put in their food because it can dehydrate them, and they die. So if you want to give them cooked cassava don't add salt. *The best way to attract snails to an environment is to use cassava chaffs because they like it so much and just the smell can attract them. And you can grind egg shells and snail shells after washing and drying them. The powder derived from it can be used to mix the snail feed with it because the powder serves as a source of calcium for the snail shells to be strong.
You may like to know the economic importance of snail farming.
As a matter of fact the profit margin on snail farming is high. For example, in the U.S snails weighing 1 pound can be sold at $50, an equivalent of 27.000cfa. You can choose to export your snails to make more gain. And as matter of fact nutritionally wise, snail meat is recognized as healthy food because of its high protein value and low in fat content. It may interest you to know that doctors recommend snail meat globally.
I believe this content can help somebody, also to make some healthy lifestyle changes by adding snail meat on the menu. And I can't end without encouraging my STEEMIT Space Community friends to love and also share this content as it may encourage someone who might or is experiencing what I went through before encountering the link on snail farming that changed my hopeless situation of circumstances to a hopeful or good one if not better!