Abstract
Snails are common in the rainforest region especially during the rainy season, but its population in the wild is decreasing due to human and environmental activities. This affect quantity available for consumption and it prompts the reason to encourage snail production. The study examined snail consumer’s willingness to choose snail production as means of livelihoods. Snowball sampling technique was used to select 120 consumers. Data were obtained through questionnaires and analysed using descriptive and correlation analyses. The result shows that many (60%) of the respondents were male, 48.7% were married with an average income of ₦78,983.64 and 37 years of age. Level of snail consumption was high (63.4%) and more than 50% were willing to choose snail production as a means of livelihood. Meanwhile, poor supply of feeding materials (43.5%) and inadequate skills in snail rearing (39.1%) were perceived as major constraints. Correlation result shows significant relationship between age (r = 0.346, p < 0.05), level of snail consumption (r = 0.200, p < 0.05) and willingness to choose snail production as means of livelihoods. The study concluded that people that consume more snails were willing to choose snail production. It is recommended that concerned agencies for capacity building should consider training people especially snail consumers in snail production and provide palliative resources to overcome challenges in snail production for sustainability and transformation of the agricultural system.Keywords: consumers, willingness to choose, snail production, constraints and livelihoods
Highlights
Snail is a common name for almost all members of the Mollusca class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage, they have soft-bodied, unsegmented animals, with a body organized into a muscular foot, a head, a visceral mass containing most of the organ systems, and a fleshy mantle that secretes the calcareous shell (Pyron and Brown 2015)
Most (79.1%) of the snail consumers had a tertiary education which probably has given them more access to information that can enhance their understanding of the snail benefits
How to obtain these feed materials are the concern that the consumers perceived they will likely face if they engage in snail farming since in their opinion the stuff might not be readily available
Summary
Snail is a common name for almost all members of the Mollusca class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage, they have soft-bodied, unsegmented animals, with a body organized into a muscular foot, a head, a visceral mass containing most of the organ systems, and a fleshy mantle that secretes the calcareous shell (Pyron and Brown 2015). Snail is a vital source of human food and its products have high nutritional value (Tremlova, 2001), containing food energy, high quality proteins, vitamins and minerals. African giant snail (Archachatina marginata) is the most common snail found and eaten in Nigeria. Environmental factors such as deforestation, increased temperatures with low rainfall, slash and burning (bush fires), uncontrollable collection from the wild, high use of agrochemicals and lack of training on intensive snail farming are all impediments to increase snail supply both from the wild and in captivity in order to solve increasing demand for snail (Ngenwi et al, 2010). Snail is a good source of vitamins A, B6, E and K, which are required for proper utilization of primary
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