The lockdown directive issued by the Federal Government to curb the COVID-19 spread, is seemingly having an adverse effect on snail farming, according to a report from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
In a chat with NAN, Chief Executive Officer of Real Snails Farms, Calabar, Mr. Sunday Ido cited logistics as a major challenge fazing snail businesses during this crisis.
According to him, the dearth of vehicles to transport the snails to target markets across the country has caused a downward spiral in the farming and sales of snails.
He told NAN: “The lockdown is seriously affecting the snail business and almost every agriculture business in the country currently.
“The immediate challenge we are facing in snail business presently is the problem of logistics. Before now, we normally use transport companies to waybill our snails. We use these transport companies because we presently do not have a dedicated transport system for the movement of agric produce.
“The restrictions of vehicular movements across states has also stopped the movement of our snails to other parts of the country.”
Ido lamented the inability to transport his snails, despite having orders from customers in various states. This, he said, has led to more expenses in feeding the animals.
“So, logistics has been the major issue. The only thing functioning now is sales within the state and all we do is small deliveries.
“With the current lockdown, I spend more on snail feeds because the ones that matured are meant to be leaving the farms and reducing the numbers I get to feed daily.
“As it is, since I do not have the means to send them out based on order from my customers, I have to spend more than I do in cultivating them. I am contemplating making most of the matured snails to layers so that while they are feeding, they are also laying more eggs instead of just fattening them without knowing when to sell them out.
“The challenge is that I am trying to balance it because we do not know how long the lockdown will last. So I do not want to be at a loss when it is time to sell,” he said.
Ido, however, suggested the launch of agro-logistic businesses, “similar to the Uber taxi model,” for ease of agro products’ transportation.
SOURCE: AGRONIGERIA
