Rajasthan-based Gaurav Pachauri had been preparing for the government examinations for nearly four years but was unable to achieve success. Roughly two years back, he was standing at the crossroads. He had two choices — continue to strive for government exams or become a farmer.
“I eventually chose the latter,” says the 30-year-old.
It was after completing his higher education in mechanical engineering in 2017 that Gaurav — like his friends — started preparing for the Rajasthan Administrative Services. “I went to Delhi to prepare for the exams. I tried my best but I did not get good results. So I started believing that government exams were not for me,” he shares.
In a bid to do something unique, Gaurav ventured into freshwater pearl farming. “I would keep watching television programmes where I was introduced to new types of farming like freshwater pearl farming. I found it interesting as one could earn handsomely by selling pearls. But it was risky as well,” he says.
More than the risk of taking up pearl farming, Gaurav feared breaking the idea to his family. “When I shared the idea with my parents, they were not convinced at all. My family had been growing traditional crops like wheat, millet, and mustard. But I had never stepped out to watch what happened on our fields. I preferred staying in the comforts of air conditioners!” he says.
“Considering this was a new kind of farming for us, my parents doubted me. They also started worrying as they had been expecting me to land a well-paying job instead of getting into farming. But I knew I needed to take a risk. I knew if I achieved success once then I would be able to sail through it,” he shares.
Earned 2.5x of investment
By mid-2022, Gaurav eventually convinced his family and went to see pearl farming ponds in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. He also attended a five-day training at the Central Institute for Freshwater Aquaculture (CIFA) in Odisha.
“There, I was taught the nitty gritty of pearl farming. I learnt how to source raw material, how to nucleate mussels, what food to offer the mussels and their surgical procedure, and how to make both designer pearls and round pearls. With this training, which cost me Rs 8,000, I became confident about implementing it on the ground. I also received the certification to practise pearl farming,” he says.
By September 2022, Gaurav prepared a pond of 150 x 80 feet in his village in Bharatpur district and added 1.15 lakh mussels to the pond. Interestingly, he roped in other small farmers in the projects as well.
“Initially, I’d thought of starting pearl farming at a small scale but as and when I discussed this with more and more farmers, they became interested in investing in the work. Of 1.15 lakh mussels, I had invested in 50,000 mussels personally,” he shares.
Gaurav started the project by investing Rs 21 lakh, of which Rs 8 lakh was spent on establishing the pond.
“After nucleating mussels, we put them in small nets and transferred them into the pond. This process took us a month and a half. But the work was not yet finished. We had to maintain the pond thereafter. Every month, we added feed and maintained oxygen in the pond for the survival of mussels,” he says.
After 21 months of patiently waiting for the mussels to turn into pearls, Gaurav finally got the results. “Our happiness knew no bounds. We fetched Rs 110 per pearl and made sales of Rs 1.25 crore and made a profit of Rs 80 lakh. To be able to earn this profit in a 1.5 bigha land is a big deal for us. Farmers in 200 villages collectively could not earn this much by growing wheat,” he says.
“Personally, I earned Rs 55 lakh after investing Rs 21 lakh. This was 2.5 times earnings,” he beams.
But this feat was not as easy. “One of the challenges in freshwater pearl farming is managing weather conditions. Rajasthan has very warm weather and it took two days of travel by train to source mussels from Odisha. In this process, the mussels became very weak as they were without water for so long, which increased the mortality rate to 50 percent,” he says.
“So, I decided to start pearl farming in the extreme winters of January instead of September and October when the weather is still hot in Rajasthan. In early 2023, when I procured mussels, the mortality rate was just 30 percent,” he shares.
“No matter how many books I read or videos I watched, I knew I would not learn anything unless I experimented on the ground. I understood the challenges and then worked on solutions,” he adds.
While waiting for the results of the first batch, Gaurav also started working on the second batch simultaneously and established another pond. “My parents interrupted and taunted me for this decision. They asked why I was willing to invest and potentially waste more money even before receiving any income from the first batch,” he shares, adding that it takes around 21 months to prepare one batch, which is a time-consuming process. So he was prepared to be patient and hopeful.
“I never replied back to any taunts but patiently waited for the results. And 21 months later, we earned Rs 1.25 crore,” he smiles. Today, Gaurav has expanded freshwater pearl farming in three ponds in Rajasthan and two ponds in West Bengal.
“I started freshwater pearl farming to earn an income for myself but this has also helped me establish an identity by doing unique work. Besides, this work has become an income source for other small farmers who invested in this project. It was better than investing in mutual funds or fixed deposits. It was so fulfilling to see the results because it shaped my career,” he shares.
Edited by Pranita Bhat; All photos: Gaurav Pachauri.
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