How To Start Snail Farming in Nigeria.

Snail farming is very profitable in Africa and it is also one of the neglected animal farming business in the region.Snail farming provides great opportunity to make money with a very short time.But Africans have not really started engaging in this lucrative farming business because of ignorance.There is a believe in countries like Nigeria and Ghana that snails can only be picked in the bush, so they are finding it difficult to believe that snails can actually be reared and grown at home.
Africans are yet to discover the money making potential of heliculture.


What is Snail?
Land snails are Molluscs, that means they belong to the class mollusca, Gastropod.The meat of snail is popularly known as 'Congo Meat' in many African countries.There are many species of snails, but not all are suitable for commercial snail farming in Africa.

Suitable species of snail for farming are:
1. Achatina fulica - The East African land snail, or giant African land snail, it's scientific name is Achatina fullica, It is an air breathing land snail in the family of Achatinadae.It is the smallest size among snail species for rearing in Africa.

Achatina fulica has a narrow, conical shell, which is twice as long as it is wide and contains 7 to 9 whorls when fully grown. The shell is reddish-brown in colour with weak yellowish vertical markings, but colouration varies with diet and environmental conditions. A light coffee colour is common.Adults of Achatina fulica may exceed 20 centimeters in shell length but generally average about 5 to 10 centimeter.

2. Achatina Achatina - Achatina Achatina is commonly called the giant Ghana snail, also known as the giant tiger land snail, is a specie of very large, air breathing land snail, a terrestrial gastropod mollusc in the family of Achatinadae.Snails are hemaphrodites, meaning they possess both the female and male reproductive organs. Two snails are still needed for breeding, but they are very prolific breeders.

3. Archachatina Marginata - Archachatina marginata, commonly called giant West African snail, is a specie of air-breathing tropical land snail, a terrestrial  pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Archatinadae.They can grow up to 20cm long, and live up to 10 years.Among all snail species, Achatina Achatina is the most desirable for farmers because it grows so big to become the biggest snail species in the world.Achatina Achatina has it's origin from Nigeria, get to Liberia from Nigera and then Ghana.
Achatina Achatina is good for commercialization because of it's profitability.This is because it can lay up to 300 to 500 eggs at a time, three times a year. Therefore, if you start a farm with about 1500 snails, in one year you would be getting about 1.5million snails going by the number of eggs they produces.