By Faiza Tehseen ISLAMABAD, May 09 (INP-WealthPK): Heliciculture, which is getting worldwide popularity with huge market potential, still remains a totally untapped business aspect in Pakistan. Rearing snails for commercial purposes is a profitable farming business. Fortunately, weather conditions in Pakistan are favourable to raising such species. There is not a long list of snail farmers in Pakistan, and no departmental research is being carried out on this subject. The industrial use of snails’ flesh, slime, eggs and shells is increasing rapidly. All the body parts of snails are used in multiple industrial sectors, including cosmetics, skin treatment, paper industry (to improve the paper capacity), composites for automobiles and related sectors (as an automotive component for pistons, brake pads, connecting rods, etc.), water purification, pharmaceuticals (as a source of calcium), and as an alloying agent (for aluminium-based composites). Snails/slugs play an important role in the ecosystem. They are also good natural machines to clean the environment by eating rotten vegetation, moist leaf litter, fungi, etc. They also help produce bio fertilizer by eating the soil. An enthusiastic farmer Chaudhary Basharat Ali from Chowk Azam of Layyah in Pakistan has taken the initiative to farm the snails. While talking to WealthPK, he said he was very fond of untraditional experiments to get economic benefits. “I successfully experimented the cultivation of ginger and saffron. It is also my aim to spread all this valuable knowledge to other farmers so that they may get a better economic approach,” he said. He shared that snail farming is another form of non-traditional farming in Pakistan. “After successful farming experiment with local snails, now I have imported a full lot of giant snails from Kenya. After receiving the lot, they will be kept in controlled environment for few months, and after at least one or more breeds, their adoptability to local weather conditions can be considered,” he said. In a reasonable budget, farmers can earn a handsome amount from snail farming. Even the import of snails is not much costly. Each snail costs below Rs1,000 after paying every type of charges. Normal life span of a snail is four to five years. Snails are hermaphrodites in nature. They lay 100 to 200 eggs after the span of every three to four months. Incubation period is 20 to 25 days. Mostly they are herbivores. Snails can be farmed in well ventilated rooms, large wooden boxes or raised earthen beds. It is important to know that whether they are reared in rooms, racks, wooden boxes or troughs, it is important to lay a bed of mud. They can survive in almost all-weather conditions but are vulnerable to extreme cold or hot seasons. A healthy snail weighs 700 to 800 grams. To get slime from snails, ozone spray is used. At least 3kg to 4kg of slime can be collected from a colony of 200 snails. Slime can be collected after the gap of every four days. Mostly, the snail slime is odourless and yellowish in colour and retains its natural quality for 1 to 1 ½ years without using any preservative. Special containers are used to store and supply the meat and eggs of snails. While to sell the snail shells or shell powder, the only care is to avoid the moisture. At the end, Basharat said that although Agriculture Department and other related sections are working hard to bring revolution in traditional farming ways, it is also the need of time to introduce the farmers with new farming aspects other than sericulture.