Angela Ukomadu's Blog

   Just like every part of the palm tree is used for one thing or the other, so it is for the snail🐌 too. Absolutely nothing goes to waste. The flesh is used for meat, said to be highly nutritious and low in cholesterol. The slime is used for cosmetic products that can help to regenerate skin cells and heal wounds. The shell is blended and used for poultry feeds or fertilizer! Yep yep, didn't know about that until this story.    So there is also a huge market out there for the African giant snails that are in abundance in the country. People are buying these up and exporting to other countries like the UK, America and Europe...but to send to America, the snails need to be cleaned and freezed, but for other countries, they can be exported alive as far as you do a proper documentation and meet the required health approval of the said country. America considers the creature as a highly voracious and invasive pest that poses a risk to agriculture, the environment an...

Picture credit: @greensprout  I'd never seen so many coconuts in one place until we started working on this story and had to visit the Agbalata coconut market in Badagry...and yes I have to visit that place again to see the Badagry Slave Museum and Route.      Okay, so we all know that coconuts are versatile fruits used for their water, flesh and husks in various industries like food and cosmetics. We also know that the coconut water is rich in potassium and is an effective re-hydration drink and that the oil can be used for hair and skin moisturizing, cooking, and even save your relationship!      But do you know that Nigeria has about 1.2 million hectares of arable land available for coconut farming but only about 36,000 hectares has been cultivated, leaving room for a huge expansion? I mean with all the plans to boost the agricultural sector thereby reducing reliance on oil exports, this great market potential is still left untappe...