{"id":15771,"date":"2022-09-06T09:20:41","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T09:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/how-india-is-building-a-pearl-farming-industry"},"modified":"2022-09-06T10:29:53","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T10:29:53","slug":"how-india-is-building-a-pearl-farming-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/how-india-is-building-a-pearl-farming-industry","title":{"rendered":"How India is building a pearl farming industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Angola. <\/strong><\/span>In 2016 Narendra Garwa was facing a desperate financial situation. His small book store in the village of Renwal, Rajasthan, was running at a loss.<\/b><\/p>\n

With a family to support and little education, he searched the internet for other money-making ideas. He had some success growing vegetables in plastic bottles, but then came across a potentially more profitable crop – pearls.<\/p>\n

“Rajasthan is a dry area with water issues. It was a challenge to think of growing pearls with limited water but I decided to try,” he says.<\/p>\n

Pearls are formed when a mollusc reacts to an irritant in its protective membrane. The mollusc deposits layers of aragonite and conchiolin, which together form nacre, also know as mother-of-pearl.<\/p>\n

In the wild, pearl formation is rare so most pearls sold these days are from farmed molluscs, usually oysters or freshwater mussels.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To spur the mollusc to form a pearl, an irritant is artificially introduced into the creature. However, it is a delicate process and the mussels or oysters must be carefully handled, as Mr Garwa found.<\/p>\n

“My first attempt was a disaster,” he admits. Of the 500 mussels he purchased, only 35 survived.<\/p>\n

Mr Garwa had travelled to Kerala to buy the mussels – a journey of 1,700 miles involving a 36-hour train journey. He also used his savings and borrowed money to come up with the 16,000 rupees (\u00a3170; $200) needed to buy the molluscs.<\/p>\n

In addition, Mr Garwa had dug a 10ft by 10ft pound in his back garden to keep the creatures in.<\/p>\n

Despite the setback, he did not give up. Instead, he took a five-day course in pearl farming.<\/p>\n

“Growing an oyster is like bringing up a baby,” he says.<\/p>\n

“Monitoring the the water throughout the growth period is crucial to achieving high quality and volume of produce.”<\/p>\n

Now he has a 40ft by 50ft pond, which he treats with multivitamins and alum which maintains the correct pH level required for growth.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The survival rate of his mussels has risen from 30% to more than 70% since becoming more familiar with the process. Mr Garwa expects to produce around 3,000 pearls this year, which he can sell for between 400 and 900 rupees (\u00a34-\u00a310; $5-$11).<\/p>\n

The Indian government has been encouraging pearl fishing as part of its Blue Revolution, a plan to modernise the nation’s fishing industry.<\/p>\n

Under the scheme the government pays for half the cost of setting up a pond for pearl fishing, and so far the Department for Fisheries has given financial support to 232 pearl farming ponds.<\/p>\n

“Pearl farming is one of the most lucrative aquaculture businesses and the government is encouraging farmers to take up this farming,” says Jujjavarapu Balaji, Joint Secretary of Marine Fisheries.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not everyone is impressed with this wave of pearl farming activity. Critics include Gunjan Shah, who is the fifth generation of his family to be in the pearl trading business.<\/p>\n

“The culture of pearl farming has increased in India but I think the pearls grown in every nook and corner are not of very good quality” says the owner of Babla Enterprises, based in Mumbai.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Angola<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Angola. In 2016 Narendra Garwa was facing a desperate financial situation. His small book store in the village of Renwal, Rajasthan, was running at a loss. With a family to support and little education, he searched the internet for other money-making ideas. He had some success growing vegetables in plastic bottles, but then […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":15770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,16],"tags":[233,337,329],"class_list":["post-15771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-angola","tag-angola"],"yoast_head":"\nHow India is building a pearl farming industry - Angola<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 2016 Narendra Garwa was facing a desperate financial situation. 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