Balasore, December 3 (LocalWire): For the farmers stretched for means to increase their earnings, freshwater pearl culture is proving to be a boon to the agrarian community in Balasore district.
According to locals, since freshwater pearl yields over three times more profit margins a lot of farmers are evincing interest in the culture process, particularly in Baliapal block in the district.
However, the farmers allege that there is no financial encouragement either from the state or the central government to support this initiative, although there is a demand for it.
Agrees district fisheries officer Rabinarayan Pattnayak: “There is no scheme to promote freshwater pearl culture under the fisheries department yet. It is under the Agriculture Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd (APICOL).”
Pattnayak further informed that the process is known as image pearl culture while the actual freshwater culture is done mainly in the southeastern Asian countries, which is not possible in this climatic condition.
A prominent pearl-culture farmer, Arun Pal said that though there are provisions for loans and subsidy under the APICOL scheme, the criterion to get the support is very stringent and makes it difficult for farmers to avail of this facility. “Overall, there may be around 20 farmers who have taken up this,” he stated.
A man with over 14 years experience in pearl culture, Pal explained that the total cost till the harvest, including mussel, feed, and cage comes to around Rs 30 per mussel and it gets sold at least Rs 100.
“One can earn around Rs three lakh by investing Rs one lakh in this. The Harvest period is a maximum of one year. However, it is important that the mussel should be at least three years old before hatching and should be of the required size and weight before undertaking culture,” Pal said.
Cultured pearls are real pearls that were not formed by accident of nature. Most pearls sold today are cultured since edible oysters do not produce nacre and thus do not produce pearls.
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Experts point out that the backyard is an excellent space for setting up kitchen gardens to enhance the nutrition security of villagers, enabling them to have fresh homegrown vegetables for a healthy life, and also some economic benefit.
The foundation has been enabling the villagers in the area to adopt the Reliance Nutrition Garden (RNG) model, which includes a round-shaped spread over 710 sq ft of area.
According to Sushant Das of Reliance Foundation in Balangir, “The main idea of a round shaped RNG is to get at least 14 types of vegetables round the year and make the habit of vegetable consumption by the community to reduce the nutrition deficiencies.”
“We have cultivated both radish and saag. Besides consuming these at home, we are also selling it in the nearby weekly market earning an average Rs 1,000. These days, we do not even need to visit the market because traders come to our house to pick up the produce,” Bedamati’s husband, Fakiram Meher said.
According to the Foundation, studies have indicated that the Hemoglobin level among women in the village has increased in Budelguma over time.
Realising the potential benefit from the nutritional garden, the Odisha Livelihood Mission (OLM) has decided to adopt the model with some modification and has started to implement it in different districts of the state.
Sharing information about the project, the department Tweeted from its official handle Krushibibhaga_Odisha:
Project APC, a multi-stakeholder partnership initiative of the state government, was launched by the chief minister Naveen Patnaik on 6 November 2018.
