Due to its unique taste and high nutritional qualities, the demand for snail in the Nigerian market is high. To take advantage of this market opportunity, it is vital to be equipped with adequate knowledge and practical skills in snail farming before venturing into this highly profitable business.

Afrimash first paid online training held on 26th to 28th and 30th to 31st of March 2020  and it was an intensive training on Snail Farming. The facilitators for the training were Dr Akintomide, T. Olayinka, CEO of Oak Ventures and Mrs Lawon Adejoke, CEO of Joks Snail Farm.

Training Outline

The five-day training outline include;

• Introduction to Snail Farming
• Snailery Design and Management
• Feed and Feeding Techniques
• Socio-economic Benefits of Snail
• Snailery Challenges and Probable solutions
• Soil Treatment
• Snail predators, parasites and diseases
• Harvesting and processing
• Finding your market and marketing

Introduction to Snail Farming (Taken by Dr Akintomide)

Generally, snails have various values such as easy handling, geometric multiplication, their friendliness etc. But in this training, our discussion will be on the African Giant Snails because they are much bigger (about the biggest species of land snails); abundant here in Africa; and also because people (consumers) are used to them.

Before we continue, we will discuss briefly on their life cycle. This is important because it indicates how they should be managed and also because it will help you improve on their management.

Life Cycle of the African Giant Snail

Snails are usually active at night, usually when it rains. This gives us the idea that they need to be kept in a cool and humid place. It also explains the reason why their skin is covered with mucus. At such times, they move around eating various soft plant parts such as leaves, fruits and the likes.

They are sensitive to almost anything – since they are defenseless thus they use their “feelers” which is known as tentacles, to feel and smell their feed. So, if you give them well scented food, they’ll eat better.

They feed on soft, less fibrous, succulent feedstuffs. You see them more at refuse sites – being that people dump various edible things there, whether rotten, fresh (preferred) or fairly hard. However, because their teeth (radulae) is chitinous, they eat less of hard stuffs. They can eat anything edible.

Snails are hermaphrodites – having both sex organs developed. Yet they have to mate with another. They have spermatheca where they store each other’s sperm, so they don’t have to mate every now and then before laying.

There are 3 main types/species of African Giant Snails (AGS). These are;

• Achatina achatina (Aa)
• Achatina fulica (Af)
• Achachatina marginata (Am)

Egg Laying in Snails

As seen in the PDF slide,

• Af lays 100 to 400 eggs about 6 times a year
• Aa lays between 80 to 350 eggs about 1-3 times a year
• Am lays just 6 to 14 eggs about 3-4 times a yea

Aa and Af (Achatina genus) have pointed shell apex, hence lay more eggs, while Am has blunt apex.

Snails, like man, stop laying after a while – usually about 1½-2 years after they start laying. After this period, they stop laying but may grow for about 6 months extra before they stop growing. So, this gives you an idea of when to stop intensive feeding. At this stage, it’s either you keep them for showcasing or just dispose. The Achatina group lay more eggs but their meat is softer than Am.

Please see the chart in the slide to learn more on the difference between them.