Socio-economic perception of snail meat consumption in Fako division, south-west region Cameroon

Cameroon south-west region offers favorable climatic conditions for survival of land snails whose meat is known for their nutritional benefits. Besides, conventional livestock (beef, chicken, etc.) cannot satisfy the high demand in Cameroon. Hence, snail meat could be suitable alternative source of protein. Therefore, this article investigated the perception and identified the main determinants of land snail meat consumption in the Fako division (south-west region Cameroon). A multistage random sampling method was used to select a total of 211 respondents. Descriptive statistics has highlighted that snail meat is quite consumed in Fako with 76.30% of respondents. Majority of respondents where Christians (95.26%) and have their origin from south-west region (56.40%). Additionally, regression analysis has pointed out that snail meat consumption depends on marital status, household size, income, snail origin and religion. The amount of snail meat consumed was shown to be influenced by its price and price variation between seasons. At the end of this study, two recommendations were made: snail farming should be increased in order to reduce scarcity of snail during dry season as well as its price and educate the people coming from other region of Cameroon on the nutritional benefits of snail meat. Key words: Snail consumption, African garden snails, Cameroon.