Cooperation with other ministries and governmental departments is laid down in the development strategy plan. In supporting the agrarian sector, the Ministry
of Agriculture and the Ministry of Lands recognize aquaculture as an alternative land use. The Ministry of Lands is associated with seaweed farming in land tenure
and land survey matters. The Department of Environment within the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Meteorology is committed to providing the
environmental assessments that may accrue from seaweed farming activities and expansion of the sector.
Through its aquaculture programme, the SPC continues to not only provide support to the seaweed industry of the Solomon Islands in its role as the intergovernmental
focal point for the aquaculture sector, but also providing specific technical advice and advocacy to the seaweed industry.
No laws and regulations concerning seaweed farming and commercialization are in place, other than the fact that no export taxes are being charged.
The CoSPSI project has contributed to seaweed farming in the country. The results of the Wagina survey indicated that most assistance in setting up the farms,
training, and maintenance, harvesting and drying activities was provided by this project.
5. CHALLENGES AND THE WAY FORWARD
Past experiences of seaweed farming in Solomon Islands have revealed a considerable degree of production risk. Natural risk factors including earthquakes, geologic
instabilities, active volcanism and tsunamis may lead to dramatic production losses. Climatic conditions such as seawater temperature rises resulting in high mortality rates,
prolonged rainy periods as well as strong currents and heavy seas contributing to seed losses and reduced harvests will not be eliminated in the future.
Some locations are chronically affected by grazing of herbivorous fish; losses can be too high to justify seaweed production. Such problems may seriously reduce potential
production levels. In addition, logging and other coastal development activities are likely to continue – if not increase – and cause further sedimentation in coastal areas,
which may also reduce production.
Increases in fuel prices crucially affect the viability of the sector. Increases in production costs, inland and export freight prices may make farm operations
economically less attractive and perhaps no longer viable. Fluctuating world market prices for seaweed may have the same effect.
Furthermore, alternative income opportunities may appear more attractive to local farmers and may trigger loss of interest in producing seaweed. This is particularly
true for copra production. Although current copra prices are not very high, future price increases may elicit interest from farmers. In addition, political instability and
insufficient governmental and external-aid-funded support for the sector are further risk factors for the industry’s development potential.
However, there is great potential for the development of seaweed farming in Solomon Islands. The country has a number of unutilized areas suitable for seaweed
farming and a large proportion of rural coastal communities that are highly dependent on diminishing marine and other natural resources. According to the Aquaculture
Division of the MFMR, if 60 percent of households in the promising sites participated in seaweed farming, dried seaweed production in Solomon Islands would reach
12 528 tonnesyear; the production would be 16 704 tonnesyear if the participation rate were 80 percent.
5 5
Whether the estimations are realistic are open to debate. The final report of the CoSPSI project specifies a potential of 2 000 tonnesyear, assuming farmers are provided with further technical and financial
assistance Preston, Tiroba and Robertson, 2009.
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It would require concentrated efforts, time, and substantial funding and support to realize the potential of seaweed farming in Solomon Islands. Local land tenure and
governance systems allow members of coastal rural communities to utilize suitable sites for producing seaweed; skills are relatively easy to attain; and basic farming materials
are freely available. However, given the lifestyle and the low financial capabilities of rural coastal people, covering investment, maintenance and operational costs to ensure
a continuous seaweed farming operation represents a major bottleneck for maintenance and further expansion of current operations.
Governmental or externally funded projects could assist farmers in acquiring and adopting financial management skills. Financing schemes made available to local agents
in order to retain a feasible amount of cash for each harvest sale may be a way to help farmers meet operation and maintenance costs. Technical and financial training of
farmers should include information on economies of scale, cash flows needed to cover operation costs, and achievable net returns.
The establishment of community-owned motorized boat transport, or alternatively transport provided by local agents, could reduce the investment requirement for
farmers to buy a motorized boat and assist them to ensure the transfer of their harvests to the selling points. However, in order to be sustainable and avoid unnecessary
distortion, such transportation services should not be free of charge but should be placed under the market mechanism.
To encourage continuous production, the government may need to establish a minimum price guarantee to subsidize local farmgate prices when world market prices
drop below a certain threshold. The costs to re-establish seaweed farms after a major drop-out may involve much higher costs than the occasional subsidies and will ensure
continuation of national agent and exporter networks.
The government may also assist in increasing reliability of interisland cargo freight services by negotiating with the existing operators a guaranteed freight volume for
seaweed harvested. Thus, frustrations shared between farmers and local agents for not being able to purchase harvest or to export regularly may be reduced or eradicated.
Given the projected future growth in national seaweed production, the establishment of specialized interisland seaweed cargo freight may be assessed, at least on certain
routes.
In cooperation with private seaweed trading companies, the government should evaluate the purchase of high-qualitylow-price materials internationally and their
regular provision at all farming sites. Local agents purchasing seaweed harvested should be used to build up a national distribution network, as is already being done.
From an environmental viewpoint, impact assessments need to be undertaken with regard to the disposal of plastic sheets, ropes and wood material from sheds, drying
tables and other buildings erected on farm sites. The current drying tables in Wagina are not effectively built, requiring a considerable amount of indigenous trees for their
construction. The development and dissemination of effectively built drying tables will help reduce the felling of local native trees. However, for large-scale farms, the
introduction of permanent drying tables made of aluminium or plastic materials that are more resistant to weather conditions, thus having a much longer life span than
locally built tables, is an option worth exploring.
The same argument applies to local mangrove resources that are used to produce pegs for erecting ropes and lines in shallow seawater. The impact of their disposal into
near-shore areas, particularly given the future increase in farm areas, also needs to be assessed.
References
Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources MFMR. 2009. Solomon Islands aquaculture
development plan, 2009−2014. Noumea, New Caledonia, Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources – Solomon Islands and Secretariat of the Pacific Community. 54 pp.
also available at www.spc.intaquaculture index.php?option=com_docmantask=doc_ detailsgid=36Itemid=3.
Pickering, T. 2005. Advances in seaweed aquaculture among Pacific Islands countries.
Presentation to the Secretariat of the Pacific Community SPC Sub-regional Seaweed Meeting. Nadi, Fiji.
Preston, G.L., Tiroba, G. Robertson, M. 2009. Commercialisation of seaweed
production in the Solomon Islands. Project ST 98009. Completion Report. Solomon Island Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources and European Commission.
Tiroba, G. McHugh, D.J. 2006. Solomon Islands – country report. In D.J. McHugh.
The seaweed industry in the Pacific islands, pp. 47−53. Canberra, Australian Government, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. also available at http:aciar.
gov.aupublicationWP61.
Social and economic dimensions of carrageenan seaweed farming in
India
M. Krishnan
Head Social Sciences Division, Central Institute of Fisheries Education
Mumbai, India
R. Narayanakumar
Head Socio-economic Evaluation and Technology Transfer Division
Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute Kochi, India
Krishnan, M. Narayanakumar, R.
2013. Social and economic dimensions of carrageenan seaweed farming in India. In D. Valderrama, J. Cai, N. Hishamunda N. Ridler, eds. Social
and economic dimensions of carrageenan seaweed farming, pp. 163–184 . Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper No. 580. Rome, FAO. 204 pp .
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors express their sincere thanks to Dr S. Ayyappan for his constant encouragement and support during the course of this work. The authors also
acknowledge the support of Dr A.G. Ponniah and Dr G. Syda Rao. The authors also express their gratitude to Mr Abhiram Seth, Dr M. Sakthivel, Dr G. Gopakumar, Dr K.
Palanisamy, Dr N. Kaliaperumal, Dr P. Kaladharan, and Mr Vinod Nehimiah for their personal cooperation and technical inputs.
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1. INTRODUCTION
