{"id":11629,"date":"2021-02-08T06:29:30","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T06:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thiruvananthapuramfirst.in\/?p=11629"},"modified":"2021-02-08T06:52:30","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T06:52:30","slug":"meet-mathachan-kj-a-farmer-who-grows-pearls-in-his-farm-in-kerala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thiruvananthapuramfirst.in\/?p=11629","title":{"rendered":"Meet Mathachan KJ, a farmer who grows pearls in his farm in Kerala"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This farmer from Kasargod has been doing it for the past 22 years<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mathachan KJ \u00a0 | Photo Credit:\u00a0Special Arrangement <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mathachan KJ spends most of his time on his farm in Kasargod, Kerala. There, he tends to over 1,00,000 mussels that grow in seven ponds. \u201cThey are not edible and are grown specifically to cultivate pearls. This batch is now nine months old. It will take another nine more months for the harvest,\u201d explains the 65-year-old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mathachan set up his pearl farm 22 years ago after resigning from his work as a professor in Saudi Arabia. \u201cIn 1982, I got an opportunity to take up a course on freshwater pearl cultivation from the Freshwater Fisheries Research Centre, China. I loved it and decided to resign my job and do it full time in 1999.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He initially cleared the rubber plantation with his 35 cents to dig the first pond to grow them. \u201cIt is large and can hold 20 lakh litres of water. The other six are comparatively smaller and are in different locations on my six acres of land. I also grow areca nut, vanilla and coconut trees in the plot.\u201d Mathachan sources the fresh mussels from the river Kaveri, near his home. \u201cI use the variety called Lamellidens marginalis<\/em> that is abundant in the Western Ghats. Both the shells and the pearls have a golden tone to it,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mussels are immersed in the pond in suspended baskets, and feed on plankton found in the water. \u201cIt is important to maintain the pH of the water between seven and nine for optimum growth,\u201d says Mathachan. The mussels dwell in the ponds for a month before they are implanted with acrylic nuclei, which later develop into pearls. \u201cI use two nuclei for a mussel which gives me two pearls during harvest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It takes 18 months for the pearls to mature by forming numerous \u2018nacre layers\u2019 around the nucleus. \u201cIt is formed by a secretion of the mussels. There will be 540 layers formed when I harvest them.\u201d The extraction is done manually, and Mathachan has six people to help him in the process. The shells are separated carefully to get the pearls. After being cleaned with water, the pearls are then sent to gemologists for certification. \u201cThey are then exported to Australia. The market for freshwater pearls is better abroad,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mathachan has taken more than 1,000 workshops on freshwater farming so far across India. \u201cAnyone can do it with a bit of patience and training. It feels good to see a growing interest. After the pandemic, I learnt to take classes online.\u201d Other than mussels, he also grows fish in the pond. \u201cIt gives me an added income and also fresh fish for the family. Most of my weekends are spent fishing with my friends on my farm,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

source: http:\/\/www.thehindu.com \/ The Hindu \/ Home> Life &Style \/ by Susan Joe Philip \/ February 02nd, 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This farmer from Kasargod has been doing it for the past 22 years Mathachan KJ spends most of his time on his farm in Kasargod, Kerala. There, he tends to over 1,00,000 mussels that grow in seven ponds. \u201cThey are not edible and are grown specifically to cultivate pearls. This batch is now nine months … Continue reading Meet Mathachan KJ, a farmer who grows pearls in his farm in Kerala<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,6,8,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","category-artsculture-entertainment","category-business-economy","category-green-initiatives-environment","category-nature"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thiruvananthapuramfirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thiruvananthapuramfirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thiruvananthapuramfirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thiruvananthapuramfirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thiruvananthapuramfirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11629"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thiruvananthapuramfirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11636,"href":"https:\/\/www.thiruvananthapuramfirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11629\/revisions\/11636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thiruvananthapuramfirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thiruvananthapuramfirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thiruvananthapuramfirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}