Participatory freshwater pearl culture for production of designer pearl with involvement of women at Takipara village of West Bengal, India

Abstract

One on-farm trial on freshwater pearl culture was carried out at community level involving the women. Pearl culture was done in cages installed in semi-intensive carp culture pond. Implanted mussels were kept at a stocking density of 15 (T1), 20 (T2) and 25 (T3) number per square feet area of each cage respectively. Five replicates were maintained for each treatment. Survival rate of mussels was observed 74.5 to 76.4% and was recorded the highest in T3. 4.71 to 5.09% excellent quality and 44.89 to 45.61% good quality designer pearls were harvested from the treatments. The result showed the model can be up-scaled to increase per unit production in aquaculture sectors in rural areas by integrating pearl culture with fish farming for improving livelihood through diversification in aquaculture and increasing employability of the marginal fish farmers, especially, enabling the scope to involve the women.