Seaweed farming as means of livelihood

CEBU, Philippines - Seaweed or “guso” farming is an alternative livelihood option initiated by the Coastal Environment Project of the DENR in Mahanay and Banacon Islands. It is introduced in these sites because it has been proven in other areas to be a profitable small business enterprise which many coastal inhabitants can start even with a small capital. 

Aside from the cash income, there are other benefits for the family as well as the community this livelihood offers. The activity will discourage or minimize the illegal and destructive fishing activities in the village such as the use of dynamite and cyanide. These illegal fishing practices can also destroy or damage the seaweed farms, hence, the seaweed farmers will exert pressure on the illegal fishers. 

Banacon and Mahanay Islands are really potential sites for seaweed farming. In terms of biophysical and environmental features of the planting site, these two islands have suited the necessary factors required for the selection of seaweed farm such as salinity, water temperature, water depth, water current, pH value and bottom condition.

 All of the seaweed farmers claimed that seaweed farming is their main source of earning cash income. Fishing, hired labor and financial support from their children working as domestic helpers and construction workers outside the island become their secondary source.

Methods of production

Seaweed farmers in these two islands planted two varieties of seaweed – Eucheuma spinosum and Eucheuma cottonii now officially known as Kappaphycus alvarezii which is popularly known as giant seaweed or “sacol” variety. It is also known as “tambalang”. The most commonly planted species is Eucheuma spinosum because it thrives easily and is not sensitive to stress and harsh environmental conditions.

Farm tools and materials used by the seaweed farmers in the establishment of their seaweed farms up to the time of harvests includes the following: plastic straw and soft-tie straw for the monolines and hangings, nylon rope for monolines and to serve as fence for the entire farm, goggles, knife, iron bar, bolo, sledge hammer, scoop net, baskets/basins and other containers, sacks, stakes, styrofoam as floating markers, bamboo poles and wood post.

Seaweed farmers in Banacon and Mahanay Islands adopted two methods of culture. These are the bottom monoline and floating monoline method. All of them practiced the bottom monoline method particularly those farmers using E. spinosum. For those farmers who got no planting site in shallow area opted to establish seaweed in the deeper portion employing the floating monoline method. There are few farmers in Banacon Island whose planting area are rocky and coralline, they employed the bottom monoline method on the first planting schedule. On the succeeding planting schedules, they just left some seaweeds already attached to the rocky/coralline substrate to regenerate and regrow until its harvestable period. They no longer need to replant since they employed the “cut-and-harvest” technique of harvesting.

As to propagation technique, seaweed cuttings used as planting materials are tied to a 20 cm “soft-tie” straw. Cuttings are approximately 200 grams in every tie. These are then tied to the monoline at an interval of 30 centimeters. Hence, in a 15- meter length monoline, there are 50 hangings of seaweed cuttings.

 Harvesting of E. spinosum is done after 3 months from planting, while E. cottonii is 2-3 months after planting. Frequency of harvesting depended on the needs of the farmer concerned when to harvest. More farmers in Banacon Island conducted harvesting in a weekly basis or once a week. Others did it in a daily basis except Sunday, while others did it on a monthly basis and twice a month. In the case of Mahanay Island, many of the farmers do harvesting twice to thrice a week and some even do it in a daily basis even Sunday.

Majority of the seaweed farmers in both islands employed the pruning technique in harvesting their seaweeds. Harvesting is done by pruning the branches and leaving about 100-200 grams of seaweed to grow again. Others employed harvesting of the entire plant and conduct replanting with new cuttings.

It took the farmers 2-3 days of drying seaweed during full sunny days and 7 days when not in good straight sunny period. Majority have no drying platform, hence they just spread the seaweed in the ground using fish nets and plastic/cellophane as ground matting.

There are few farmers in Banacon Island and Mahanay who have bamboo platform where they dried their seaweeds. Others used ramie sacks (trapal) and cellophane as mats in drying their seaweeds.The farm gate price of E. spinosum in both islands was P7 to P8 per kilogram for dried seaweed and P1 per kilogram for fresh weight. For E. cottonii, fresh weight seaweeds are sold at P18 to P19 per kilogram. 

Economic benefits

Based on the economic analysis of the livelihood, it is a promising activity which the islanders could rely on in terms of earning cash income. In Mahanay Island, a rate of return of investment (ROI) of 48 percent is quite good for a small farmer entrepreneur on seaweed culture, while in Banacon Island, ROI is 98 percent which implies that for every peso invested on seaweed farming 0.98 centavos go back to the farmer with a payback period of 1.01 years.

Seaweed farmers adopted three planting cycles on a year giving them time to harvest their plantation after three months of waiting. On the first year of operation, they got a higher operating cost because of the costs of materials including seedlings. 

However, on the succeeding years of operation, operating cost will be lessened because they no longer buy for the seedlings and some of the materials are reusable for the next planting schedule such as goggles, scoop nets, and drying facilities. Thus, a bigger net income could be attained and the rate of return of investment would be higher also.

 In Mahanay Island, seaweed farmers had a rate of ROI of 48 percent which basically means that for every peso a farmer invests P0.48 goes back to him. It will take him 1.08 years to pay back his investment for the first year of operation of seaweed farming.

 In the case of Banacon Island, 98.92 percent is the rate of ROI which implies that P0.98 goes back to the farmer for every peso he invested on seaweed farming. It will take him 1.01 years as payback period of his investment for the first year operation. However, farmers are expected to get higher ROI in the following years of operation because they will no longer spend for the seedlings and some of the materials can still be used on the next plantings.

Marketing Considerations

 The intervention of middlemen in the marketing of their seaweeds posed a problem because these are the ones who control the pricing of their products. Alternative solution is capacitating the POs to transform into a cooperative so that they would be capable to market their products to direct buyers.

Seaweed farmers in Banacon and Mahanay Islands encountered also problem on the marketing aspect of their harvested seaweeds. They got only a limited market outlet of their farm products. There was even a time that buying was stopped due to the surplus of supply of seaweeds since market outlet is limited only in Cebu. They had even experienced selling their seaweeds to buyers to a price as low as two pesos per kilogram.

In the economic point of view, seaweed farmers always look at the prices of the commodity, hence it is the motivating factor that determines whether a farmer will plant seaweed or not. Thus, it is very important to identify and establish a permanent and more market outlets for the products. — /WAB   (FREEMAN NEWS)