How Pearl Farming Helped This Farmer

Once Sanjay got the results by experimenting on few shells, he rented a freshwater pond. He also gathered the tools from his own household to surgically implement mantle grafts and appropriate nuclei in the internal organs of the oyster.

Once the setup was ready, he fished out almost 5,000 oysters, inserted the pebble-shaped mantle grafts designed by him into each one of them and placed them into the pond.

“It takes around 18 to 20 months to form a good quality pearl. But the conditions are that it should be reared in freshwater and the oysters should be alive till the pearls are formed,” says Sanjay.

To keep the pond clean, Sanjay added fish to it. These fish are also important to provide food to the oysters -the oysters live on the food left by the fish.

For almost nine months Sanjay took care of these oysters like babies. The villagers laughed at him as none had heard about the idea of pearl farming before.

A determined Sanjay did not stop here. In 2015, he made his own tank in his house, and has grown almost 5,000 pearls last December.

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