A R Agro Farm

About

A R Agro Farm is the pearl and ornamental-fish farm of young Abdur Rahman of Ektarpur village in Abhaynagar upazila, Jashore. In 2020, with schools shut by Covid, he watched YouTube and started culturing pearls with two mussels in the water tank on his roof; he then gathered about 500 mussels from local canals and beels. In 2022 he took a three-day freshwater pearl culture course at the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute in Mymensingh, visited farms in Naogaon and Kotchandpur, and set up the farm at the end of 2022. Designed nuclei (pearl seeds) are implanted in the mussels, which stay in the water for 7 to 11 months before the pearls are harvested; there are 3,000 mussels in the 20 ft by 10 ft rooftop tank and 7,500 in two ponds at his sister's home in Nauli village. He sold Tk 2 lakh worth of pearls in one year; jewellery and design firms buy his round and designed pearls. Nineteen workers collect mussels, make nuclei, design pearls and make nets for Tk 400-500 a day. Ornamental fish bring in about Tk 3,000 a month, and he trains young people from different areas in pearl culture.

Products and services

• A-grade pearl

  Tk 500–600 / each

  Wholesale price, varies by design

• B and C grade pearls

  Tk 100–150 / each

  From Tk 100-150

• Designed pearl nucleus (seed)

  Tk 6 / each

• Nylon thread net

  Tk 40 / each

• Collected mussels

  Tk 5 / each

• Ornamental fish

• Pearl culture training

Prices as given by the owner; ask before you buy.

Address and hours

To learn or to work here

• Teaches

  Trains young people from different areas in pearl culture

• Visitors welcome