Anh Son farmers replicate black apple snail farming model
(Baonghean.vn) - With the characteristics of being easy to raise, easy to find food, and having few diseases, recently, many farmers in Anh Son district have focused on improving the water surface and investing in black apple snail farming models, bringing high economic efficiency.
Currently, the black apple snail farming model of Mr. Nguyen Van Duc's family in village 4, Tao Son commune is a new economic model, bringing high income in the locality.
Mr. Duc shared: In 2018, he went into the streams and dams in the commune to find and catch mother snails and try to breed them. According to Mr. Duc,black apple snailis very popular in the market because of its sweet and fragrant snail meat. In addition, this is an easy-to-raise aquatic product, well adapted to farming conditions in ponds, earthen lakes or cement tanks. Thanks to the quality of Mr. Duc's black apple snails raised in the natural environment and the food is very familiar and easy to find such as duckweed, naturally grown vegetables, without using industrial food, so the market favors it, the main output is the centers in Thanh Chuong, Do Luong and Yen Thanh districts.
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| The black apple snail farming model of Mr. Nguyen Van Duc's family, village 4, Tao Son commune is a new economic model, bringing high income in the locality. Photo: Thai Hien |
In 2020, Mr. Duc earned more than 150 million VND from snail seeds and meat snails. In order to proactively supply local seed sources to meet the farming needs of farmers, in 2021, he decided to focus on seed production. He expanded the area and scale to 4 ponds with an area of 6 sao, self-propagated, and developed the model in large quantities.
From the beginning of 2021 until now, Mr. Duc has sold 70,000 snails, at the price of 500 VND/snail, he earned 35 million VND, currently he is preparing to sell more than 70,000 snails of the next batch.
After a period of research, Mr. Dang Ba Ngo, village 2, Phuc Son commune realized that the demand for black apple snails is increasing. Not only that, this is a species that grows very quickly, has good resistance, and is suitable for local fields, so Mr. Ngo went to Quynh Luu district to learn and buy snail seeds to raise on an area of 1 sao pond.
Sharing his experience in raising black snails, Mr. Ngo said: Snails start to reproduce and the peak egg-laying period is usually from April to October. Newly laid eggs are clear white and turn opaque white when about to hatch. Farmers need to collect the eggs, put them in an incubator at a suitable temperature of 25-32 degrees Celsius for the eggs to hatch, after 15-17 days the eggs will start to hatch. The normal raising time from the egg stage to the commercial snail stage is more than 3 months, however, if the farmer extends it to 4-5 months, the quality of the snails will improve, they will be older, tastier and bigger (the weight also increases).
In addition to managing food and pond environment, Mr. Ngo also pays great attention to managing snails in hot and cold seasons and disease management. He said: Snails do not tolerate heat well, so in the summer, we need to pay attention to preventing heat by adding duckweed to the pond. In the winter, snails hide in the mud to hibernate and are almost inactive. At this time, we must drain some of the water in the pond and put plants and grass in the pond to keep the snails warm.
With an area of 1 sao pond with 30,000 snail seeds, if well cared for after 4 months, 600 kg of commercial snails can be harvested with the current selling price of 90,000 VND/kg; after deducting expenses, the farmer earns 30 - 35 million VND, each year can raise 2 snail crops. After more than 1 year of raising, realizing that this is a model with high income and stable output, Mr. Ngo is now breeding to expand to 4 sao of his family's pond.
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| With the characteristics of being easy to raise, having few diseases, abundant food sources, simple, easy to find, suitable for all natural farming conditions; especially the stable output market, so expanding the black apple snail farming model is very feasible. Photo: Thai Hien |
Anh Son is one of the localities with strengths in aquaculture, exploitation and processing of aquatic products with a value of tens of billions of VND each year. Currently, the black apple snail farming model is being replicated by farmers in the communes of Cam Son, Phuc Son, Tao Son, Thanh Son... With the characteristics of easy farming, few diseases, abundant food sources, suitable for all natural farming conditions, stable output market, so replicating the black apple snail farming model is feasible.
Mr. Khoa added: Currently, localities are promoting people to take advantage of land areas in low-lying areas, ineffective rice fields or build cement tanks, make tarpaulin tanks to expand the snail farming model in the direction of goods, efficiency, safety, at the same time transferring science and technology to help the model develop further. From there, contributing to building key products, sustainable commodity values according to OCOP standards in the district.