Snail farming is a rewarding venture

NAIROBI: Father Mutuku Daniel; my parish priest once visited West Africa in company of his fellow Kenyan priests and some nice soup was served as an appetiser at lunch break. They enjoyed the soup until they asked what it was made from.... your guess is as good as mine. It is said that those who know how sweet a snail is will salivate, but those who don’t know feign nausea at its slime.

In Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Cost snails are a delicacy that is served in five-star hotels. Long ago in Rome, snail meat was considered medicinal and was used in the treatment of whooping cough, ulcers, anemia and asthma in addition to being an aphrodisiac.

Snail meat is slowly gaining global recognition as a good source of protein, iron and calcium. Its relatively low in cholesterol levels is making it very appetising in lieu of the upsurge in lifestyle diseases.

Naturally, snails are found in tropical rain forests where temperatures are cool and humidity. Snails have historically been harvested during rainy seasons when they come out from hibernation to feed and breed. In West Africa, snails are gathered from forests and sold in market places during the rainy seasons creating a situation where their supply is only seasonal.

To satiate the all year round demand for snail meat, snail farming is filling this void. There are huge snail farms (heliculture) in Europe and West Africa where demand for snail meat is high. In Kenya, snail farming is a largely unexploited local market; thanks to globalisation and a slow change in eating habits.

Snails are cold blooded hermaphrodites (have both male and female reproductive organs). The female lays eggs which are deposited in the soil in clutches of between 30 to 300 eggs. The eggs need warmth to hatch and this can take between 10-31 days depending on the local temperatures.

Snails attain sexual maturity at 14 to 20 months and will weigh between 100-450 grams depending on the species and feeding; the giant African snails can grow up to 20 cm in length. Snails have a lifespan of up to eight years. The snails body can be divided into two parts the main body and the shell, the head has two tentacles which are not equal in length the longer one has its eyes.

Snails are very sensitive to temperature and in hot weather they retract into their shells and become dormant. To rear nails, one needs a permit from Kenya Wildlife Service. The next consideration should be the availability of a market for your stock as snail eating is closely tied to cultural and religious believes.

Snails can be farmed using the natural weather in humid and rainy climatic zones. Outside these zones artificial modifications can be made to snaileries. These must be in a place that is cold and humid, with a good loose soil supplemented with calcium and magnesium to increase growth rate. Used car wheels placed on top of each other and covered with a meshed fabric, old oil drums with holes at the bottom can be used as snail pens to rear snails for domestic consumption. Paddock pens covered with meshed fabric are used for commercial snail production. Snails are strict vegetarians and their main dish are sweet potato vines, cabbage, lettuce and paw paw and leafy vegetables. Their eating habits change with age; the young are ardent browsers of sprouting soft vegetables while the mature and ageing prefer withering leaves, rotting fruits and humus.

Kitchen waste can be fed to snails but it shouldn’t contain table salt. Crushed egg shells and lime stone be good supplements for calcium.

Quality of snails is normally determined by the weight at maturity and strength of the shell as it ensures proper protection from predators and faster growth.

Snail’s shell is made up of calcium derived from the feeds and soil. Soil is the source of water for them during hibernation and provides a laying nest for their eggs. Crowding reduces growth rate and leads to small sizes at maturity; accumulation of slime suppression reproduction of the snails. It recommended to rare between 15 to 25 snails per m2.

The writer teaches Agricultural Information and Communication Management at the University of Nairobi