Pearls are always thought to be grown naturally and are usually found on the banks of rivers and beaches. With the advent of modern techniques, people can now grow the pearls artificially at home. A farmer named Naveen Chandra has been successfully growing pearls at his home for two years. He is a resident of Aivarnadu village located in the Sulya Taluk in the Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka. The farmer is now earning a good income through this cultivation.
Naveen Chandra developed an interest in pearl cultivation during a program and decided to pursue this. He received training for pearl cultivation from the Gandhi Kishan Vigyan Kendra (GKVK), Bangalore. Explaining the process of pearl cultivation to Local18, Naveen Chandra said that for cultivation, the Black Shells are brought from Kodak and are reared in a constructed water pond at home.
He said that 10 litres of water is required to grow one shell. Naveen Chandra is growing shells in two tanks of 2,000-litre capacity. These shells are brought and placed in another tank for a week to inspect their quality.
After confirming, he performs a little surgery putting the nuclei and muscles into the shell. Then they are transferred into a big tank. He logs in the date and time when the shells are put in the tank. It takes one year for the pearl to grow from the shell. It helps him to calculate the right time to separate the pearl from the shell. The water in the big tank needs to be changed from time to time to keep the shells healthy.
Different types of pearls are cultured like breaded pearls, pearls with the image of gods and others. Two mussels are inserted inside a shell. According to him, the price of each mussel is Rs 200 at the Rackham Market in Karnataka. If the same pearl is sold online, then it is priced between Rs 1,000 to 1500 rupees.
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