By Mercy Omoike
A snail farming expert, Mr Sunday Ido, has harped on the need to increase local production of snails in the country.
Ido, a snail farming analyst and trainer, made the call in an interview with Newsmen on Thursday in Lagos.
Ido noted that there were many factors that needed to be put in place to increase local production of snails due to its growing demand.
“There are different factors we must consider to increase the production of snails in the country. The only problem is that we have not been able to crack how to fasten the growth.
“So, the duration for the growth of snails takes a longer time and because of that it requires huge investments.
“This is because of security and the ability of it being preyed upon easily, we need a very secure environment. So that’s where the costing comes in.
“So, many peple that want to go into snail farming end up falling into the cycle of doing snail vending (a situation where snails are sourced from the wild).
“This is because without insufficient funding, nobody can successfully venture into snail farming, before you know it, you run out of cash because you may not know that snail takes more than almost two years to get to maturity,” Ido said.
The expert harped on the need for more people to go into snail farming to boost the sector’s yields.
“So, without adequate preparation before delving into the business can be discouraging, so most farmers end up still doing vending.
“Also, sourcing for snails from the wild is getting really difficult by the day because deforestation is affecting snail production in the wild.
“One major way we can increase snail production is when we have more people venturing into snail farming.
“And people can only go into it when we have adequate funding . Personally, I slowed down at a point because when I had to relocate. Setting up a place for the cultivation of snails became a major challenge,” the expert said.
He also decried the inability of most snail farmers to meet growing demand for the produce due to limitations in its production.
“Presently, I get bulk orders everyday for snails where I am but I am unable to meet up due to my limited production volume.
“Last year, almost all the orders I did were snails that were sent out of the country. But majority of them were sourced from other farmers or vendors because my farm is still growing and I cannot meet that demand.
“We are looking at a point where we will get to where snails availability will not be seasonal. So, funding, building interest and awareness of snail farming among people will become popular.
“Everybody is aware that poultry and fish farming are lucrative ventures, with a large number of people going into it but that’s not the case for snail farming.
“We are also trying to see how we can develop research and development to increase production of snails locally. But research is expensive,” he said.
He urged the government to support the sector through funding or grants.
“The last grant the government released for agriculture had nothing about snail or anything in horticulture mentioned.
“I’ve never seen any government grant that includes snail farming in their plans. So, if we can get policy makers to get interested in boosting snail farming, the sector will grow.
“But there are no policies in the agriculture sector, especially in Nigeria, that is covering the protection and increased production of snails,” Ido said.