Though bestowed with more than 8,000 km coastline enriched with seaweeds (macro algae) which has huge potential as a sustainable food source and provide livelihood to coastal communities hit by climate change vagaries, India’s share in global production is negligible at .01 per cent when compared to China and Indonesia which have grabbed 80 per cent of the market pie.

Now, keen to be not left behind, the Modi Government is leaving no stone turned and taking a series of measures like providing subsidy, capacity building and awareness through webinars and interaction among others with the interested cooperatives and entrepreneurs to take up seaweed cultivation in a big way, business of which is projected to hit USD 26 billion by 2026.

India’s present seaweed value is estimated to be around just USD 500 million ie 50 crore and the officials feel that there is a huge opportunity to exploit the potential of the seaweed business.

To spur the sector, the government has already allocated Rs  637 crore for the cultivation of these nutrition-rich marine plants, as part of the Rs 20,050-crore central scheme Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY)—to be spent over the next five years, mainly as subsidy support.

In fact, seaweed cultivation has been the pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who since his days as Chief Minister of Gujarat, had been stressing on its promotion for the fishermen and coastal communities looking to  double their income by 2022 and boost the rural economy.

In this direction, to create awareness and deliberate on the strength, opportunities and challenges, an international webinar is being jointly organized by the Department of Fisheries, Union Ministry of Animal Husbandry , LINAC-National Cooperatives Development Corporation (NCDC),  and NEDAC, Bangkok next week ie January 28, 2021.

At the webinar, the stakeholders including scientists, government officials and entrepreuners from India and countries like Canada, Thailand, Phillippines and Vitenam will share their views, brought on one platform and steps will be taken work towards forging alliances for promotion of entrepreneurship in the sector through cooperatives. At the same time, the webinar will identify bottlenecks at various levels and will aim at evolving options.

“Much of India’s coast is ideal for seaweed cultivation with suitable tropical weather, shallow waters and a rich supply of nutrients. In total, as many as 841 species of seaweed thrive along the region, though only a few are cultivated. The seaweed is not only destined to be a food source, but also a source of biofuels, bio-fertilisers and other products like in pharma and cosmetic,” said Sundeep Kumar Nayak, MD of the NCDC. He said the webinar is the part of series of steps planned  to promote seaweed cultivation among the cooperatives in the country.

While Dr. Rajeev Ranjan, Secretary of the Department of Fisheries from the Animal Husbandry Ministry will be the chief guest at the webinar, Manoj Joshi, Additional Secretary from Union Ministry of Food Processing will dwell on his Ministry’s support for seaweed based food and Dr. Thierry Chopin, Prof of Marine Biology, University of New Brunswick, Canada will talk about ‘Seaweeds, a key component of Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) providing important ecosystem services, which should be valued.”

The other topics that would be taken up during the webinar will be ‘Seaweed based Sagarika for farmers’ by Dr. US Awasthi, MD IFFCO, India, Dr. Blossom Kochhar, Chair, Blossom Kochhar Group, India will touch upon ‘Seaweeds in the cosmetics industry in India’.

Others who will participate  include Kavita Nehemiah, Snap Natural & Alginate, India,  Dr. Nguyen Van Nguyen, Dy Dir, Res Inst for Marine Fish, Vietnam, Dr. Anicia Q Hurtado, University of the Philippines Visayas, Philippines, Prof Krishna R Salin, Director, NEDAC Bangkok  and Dr. Atul Patne, Commissioner Fisheries, Gov of Maharashtra, India  among others.

The key beneficiaries of this webinar will be seaweed farmers, budding entrepreneurs, youth, women and vulnerable communities. The webinar also aims at augmenting awareness about seaweed farming as a business and to come up with an actionable, time bound plan which will contribute towards attaining ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat,’ said Nayak.

It has been estimated that lndia can produce one million tonnes of dry seaweed providing employment to nearly 2 lakh fishers with an annual income of Rs 1 lakh per individual.

Nayak further said that seaweed farming is one of the few sectors in developing countries that allow a certain level of flexibility besides tackling climate change threats. As a result, women can work in this business and gain an independent income without neglecting their traditional household work. For instance, Tanzania has seen women emerge as leaders in the seaweed world, and they have even moved onto producing seaweed flour in addition to farming, he added.

As per the PMMSY guidelines, seaweed farming will be promoted in a mission mode and supported through financial, marketing and logistical support to ensure income and welfare gains to small fisher population especially women and fisherwomen headed households.

Seaweed seed banks, nurseries, tissue culture units, processing and marketing units, etc. would be supported.