Ditch Problems in Snail Farming and Their Solutions

When it comes to snails, I think everyone should be very familiar with them, especially since in recent years the market demand for snails has gradually increased. In recent years, China's late-night snack industry has developed very well, so the market demand for snails has also grown larger and larger.

Ditch Problems in Snail Farming

The ditches used for snail farming are generally 100 cm wide and 50 cm deep. Idle and miscellaneous land can be used to dig ditches for raising snails, and the watering ditches of melon fields, vegetable plots and vegetable gardens can also be used to raise snails. If the ditch is newly dug, drainage and irrigation facilities must be built so that water can be both drained and irrigated. After the ditch is dug, use fences to divide the ditch into sections for easy management. On the ridge surface of the ditch used for snail farming, economic plants such as melons, vegetables, fruits, grass and beans can be planted.

What Are Snails  

The term "snail" broadly refers to mollusks of the family Viviparidae, belonging to the phylum Mollusca, class Gastropoda, subclass Prosobranchia, family Viviparidae. Snails are distributed in most areas of China. Snails have relatively high requirements for water body and water quality, and their yield is low. They can be caught in summer and autumn. In freshwater, the Chinese round snail (Cipangopaludina chinensis) and others are commonly found. Snails are dioecious. The main method for distinguishing female and male snails is based on the form of their right tentacle. The right tentacle of the male snail curves inward to the right (the curved part is the male reproductive organ). In addition, female snails are large and round, while male snails are small and long.  

The snail is an ovoviviparous animal, and its mode of reproduction is unique: both the embryonic development and the juvenile snail development of the snail are completed within the mother's body. From fertilized egg to the production of juvenile snails, it takes about one year of gestation within the mother's body. Snails lay eggs in batches, beginning to reproduce from March to April each year. While producing juvenile snails, the female and male parent snails mate and fertilize, and at the same time the juvenile snails to be produced the following year are gestated within the mother's body. One mother snail produces about 100 to 150 juvenile snails over a full year.

Snail Farming Prospects  

Snail meat is a nutrient-rich natural health food, and abroad it is also called a beauty food. It contains 10.3% protein and 1.2% fat, and also vitamins, calcium, iron and other elements essential to the human body. Snail meat is nutritionally superior to chicken, duck, goose and pork, and is no less than crucian carp and sea cucumber. Snail meat can nourish kidney yin, improve eyesight and clear the mind, and enhance muscle elasticity and refine the skin, among other benefits.  

Snails can be used as an everyday meat dish, and can also be processed into a series of foods, cooked into a variety of medicinal dishes, and used to prevent and treat diseases. At present, naturally grown snails are far from able to meet market demand, and snail farming grows fast and has high yields, so snail farming has broad "money" prospects.

Is Snail Farming Profitable  

As people's living standards improve, snails have moved from the recipe books of ordinary people onto the tables of high-end banquets. At present, in China's urban and rural areas alone there are more than 20 ways to eat snails, such as frying, braising, boiling, stewing and pickling. According to market analysis, snail food is in short supply at restaurants and hotels in major cities across China, and the gap is very large. Recently, South Korea, building on the introduction of traditional Chinese processing techniques, has made snails a high-end food much loved by Koreans. Last year, South Korea's Haiying Aquatic Products Co., Ltd. imported more than ten thousand tons of snails in one order through the China Yantai Development Zone Import and Export Company. This has brought Chinese snails to foreign countries. The price reached 136 yuan per ton, and the prospects for snail farming are increasingly promising.  

Snail farming can use old pits and ponds, canals and paddy fields, or newly dug farming sites. As long as some aquatic plants are grown in the water, the snails' dietary needs can be met, with no need to invest in feed. They can reproduce and multiply 150-fold in a year, and 1 person can farm 10 mu of water surface. It is an aquaculture project with extremely low investment, relatively quick returns and large income.

Although the market prospects for snail farming are very good, everyone should not blindly follow the trend. Before farming, it is still necessary to comprehensively consider its market conditions. When farming snails, the most important thing is the snails' living environment, so the ditch in which the snails live is very important.