Monday, June 24, 2013

How to make money rearing snails



               Rearing of snails can be a very productive pastime in Nigeria. It needs little input in terms of human effort. The African giant land snail is the common specie of snails in Nigeria, and luckily it is edible. Its scientific name is  Achatina fulica.  Starting up a backyard snail farm relatively easy compared to other animal farms. In Nigeria costs should range from about 500 naira to about 10,000 naira. Of course there is no limit to the amount of capital used for start up. The advantage is this is a business that can be started with a low as 500 to 1000 naira.
               Snails are very prolific animal that lay eggs and they do not need to mature before they start laying eggs. They usually are not affected by diseases but may be attacked by insects that crawl on the ground such as termites, ants etc. Just make sure the snail cage is really partitioned from other areas
               Since you literally do not o anything to set up a snail farm other than to buy some small snails, keep them in a secluded moist area and feed them leaves or starchy foods then it means you have a high turnover i.e. high profit margin after sales.
               Not all snail types grow up to become big. So make sure before you buy baby snails at the market ask the trader for a specie that is suitable for rearing. You will get snails in any of the big markets around.
               When your snails are fully grown you can sell them back to the traders you brought them from as babies or sell them to all the numerous roadside food joints. You can also sell them to bigger retail foods outlets like zartech but you would have to register your farm with the corporate affairs commission to do that. It takes about six months for snails to grow to maturity.

Warning: Snails must not come in contact with salt. Do not give them food waste that contains salt in them.

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