A farmer in Fatehabad is drawn to pearl farming by the desire to stand out

While some farmers do go outside of the rut, the majority continue to grow basic crops like rice, wheat, cotton, and millet. As farming methods change, an increasing number of farmers are deviating towards diversification.

One such farmer is Basant Saini, in the district of Fatehabad, Haryana. He is now encouraging other farmers to abandon traditional crop cycles in order to pursue profitable pearl farming.

Saini, who lives in Fatehabad’s Sambalwala village (Tohana), said he has always wished he could do something different. He started growing mushrooms on his one-acre farm for the first time in 1996. His interest then grew to include other specialized types of farming. Unfortunately, he had two cases of Covid, which caused his health to deteriorate significantly.

These days, health problems prevent the bottom portion of his body from functioning normally. Even with these physical obstacles, he persisted in working hard. He became interested in pearl farming after seeing a movie about it that he came upon during the Covid time. He then asked his son, who lives in Australia, for guidance on this endeavor.

Basant and his son studied pearl farming for around a year and a half. He finally made a risk in this manner in September 2023. He started off cultivating pearls on a half-acre plot of land. In the last two years, he claims to have spent around Rs 4 lakh, and in the next months, he expects to make almost Rs 18 lakh in profit.

Basant also received online instruction from Bhubaneswar, Odisha, in pearl farming. He says that the first step in pearl farming is collecting oysters, which must be imported since they are not readily accessible locally. There are two kinds of oysters: sea oysters and freshwater oysters, which need to be raised in canal water.

According to Saini, freshwater oysters are utilized more often these days since they are readily available. He continued by saying that oysters are constantly fed in facilities designed to keep them immersed in clean water. The oysters are given nuclei and then submerged in water. Pearls mature and become suitable for harvesting after around 1.5–2 years.

According to Basant, his farm presently has 8,000 oysters, but he plans to increase that number to 20,000. He has made the decision to excavate two ponds for this. Between October and November of this year, Basant intends to sell the harvest from his first crop. According to him, half-sized pearls sell for between Rs 100 and Rs 300, while full-sized pearls may bring between Rs 300 and Rs 900 each piece.

Furthermore, the value of the pearls that are collected from these oysters rises dramatically when they are allowed to grow for two to three years; depending on their quality, they may cost anywhere from Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000 per carat in the market.

Remarkably, pearls are used in Ayurvedic medications in addition to jewelry. They are also used in the creation of tiny sculptures and women’s cosmetics.