Snake farming: Alternative to Agriculture 
Commercial farming for boosting the economy of poor farmers of Nepal is always an alternative to agriculture.
By Dr Sanat Dhungel
Every body is afraid of snakes, but all of them are not poisonous. There are 77 species of snakes in Nepal, mostly found in the Terai region. Among them, few are poisonous such as Cobras, Kraits, Vipers and the King Cobra. Snakes are killed in thousands in the Terai region as soon as they are seen by the local people. In fact many of the species found in Nepal are non poisonous but are killed indiscriminately. Recently Nepal has adopted wildlife Rules and Regulations to farm wildlife. Many private individuals are interested and have gained access to legal licenses to farm wild animals commercially including snakes, birds and monkeys.
Most of the land area in Nepal is very harsh, difficult and rugged and cold that evolved through millions of years except the fertile Terai land. Therefore Nepal's strategy as well as policy must be to adopt and develop a economic system based on scientific findings, low weight, high value biodiversity products useful in future extremely valuable and useful products like Venom, Musk, Yarsagumba and essential oils.
A special tribe called the Netuwa tribe has been using the art of snake catching, keeping, feeding and charming snakes including cobras and pythons since hundred of years. They live mostly in the Terai regions of Bara, Parsa, Chitwan, Morang and western part of Nepal. They can turn the art of snake catching and charming into alternative agriculture by breeding valuable snakes like cobras/kraits/vipers that are easy and cheap to keep and feed and turn this into alternative agriculture which does not require large chunk of land area to grow and require water for irrigation. There is no need to plough the land and heavy hours of work to get a little maize, rice or vegetables. Instead, snakes can be raised in a small light wooden box, with a clean water pot which can be opened and closed from outside with a small but safe hut on a high dry ground made of bamboos or local building materials that are cheap and found locally. Feeding is easy with giving them mice or rats or frogs once every 8-10 days and they should not be disturbed too often.
Commercial farming for boosting the economy of poor farmers of Nepal is always an alternative to agriculture. These poor people do not have access to land for farming agriculture crops. Snakes lay eggs and these can be incubated just like chickens to increase their numbers. Once the numbers are more, each farmer can loan to others or sell it locally for breeding purpose. Cobras lay eggs up to 40 at one time.
With more R&D locally, more insights can be gained in breeding, egg laying, egg incubation, food habits, diseases and parasites to develop an economical as well as successful farm in Nepal.
The most economical aspect of cobra farming is its venom. Cobra venom can be milked properly once every month. It can be frozen into powder. It is a low weight but extremely high value commodity with is renewable. As an example snake venom is very useful to treat many diseases of brain disorders. Snake venom drugs has potential to treat cancer, HIV/AIDS, MND and many more yet to be discovered in the future. Snake venom is used to manufacture anti-venom world wide along with heart attack drugs that are costly. The HIV/AIDS drug potential market in China and USA alone has a potential of more than 300 billion dollars.(Source: NutraPharma Inc, USA).
The Netuwa tribe learns the art of snake habitat, snake environment, snake catching, keeping it safely and feeding proper diet etc when they are young. They learn this dangerous art of snake handling from their elders. This art must not die but made to flourish.
Additionally, breeding of cobras saves the endangered species from extinction. Cobras hatch after about 2 months when they need small frogs and toads or insects to feed. An alternative project such as frog farming is also a possibility for these local farmers.
The Nepal government can easily identify the local expertise of the Netuwa tribes to start a snake breeding Model Project with a seed funding source from International Agencies to help save this endangered tribe as well as the cobras.
(Dhungel lives in New Zealand but is involved in a snake breeding project in Nepal and can be reached at sanatdhungel@slingshot.co.nz)
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