Women show the way as India pushes ‘eco-miracle’ seaweed

RAMESWARAM, India: Draped in a colourful saree and shirt, Lakshmi Murgesan dives into the azure waters off India’s southern coast to gather seaweed, which is being hailed by scientists as a miracle crop that absorbs extra carbon dioxide than timber.
India is the world’s third largest carbon polluter, behind China and the US, and has but to set a goal date for its emissions to achieve internet zero.
However authorities are wanting into how seaweed farming might assist cut back the influence of greenhouse gasoline emissions, reverse ocean acidification and enhance the marine setting, in addition to offering a sustainable livelihood for marginalized coastal communities.
“I’m doing this for my youngsters… It requires a number of arduous work, however I’m able to earn good earnings from about 4 months of labor,” stated Murgesan, who makes 20,000 rupees ($265) every month farming the fibrous macroalgae.
“I might not have been in a position to educate my youngsters however after doing this, I might ship my youngsters to varsity,” she added, smiling as she emerged from the waters in Rameswaram, within the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
M. Ganesan, a authorities marine scientist, stated seaweed gives a doable manner ahead as coastal habitats and wetlands take up 5 instances extra carbon than terrestrial forests.
“It’s a miracle crop in some ways, it’s eco-friendly, it doesn’t use land or contemporary water. It absorbs carbon dioxide dissolved in water throughout photosyntheses and oxygenates the complete marine ecosystem,” Ganesan informed AFP.
India, which has an 8,000-kilometer (5,000-mile) shoreline, is now aiming to spice up manufacturing from the present 30,000 tons to a couple of million tons annually by 2025.
Globally, seaweed manufacturing was value round $12 billion in 2019 and is predicted to develop to $26 billion by 2025, with China and Indonesia having 80 % of the market share.

Murgesan is a part of a staff of girls who work collectively to domesticate fronds of seaweed on bamboo rafts, earlier than harvesting and drying them.
The tropical waters of Tamil Nadu kind an excellent setting — with one raft yielding as much as 200 kilos (440 kilos) in round 45 days.
The product is then despatched on the market in markets nationwide in addition to the US and Australia by AquAgri, a personal firm that promotes algal cultivation in India.
Common in East and South East Asian delicacies, seaweed can be utilized in drugs, cosmetics, bio-fertilizer and bio-fuel.
“Seaweed has main use as a crop bio-stimulant for growing productiveness and making the crop extra resilient to local weather induced stresses. It’s additionally used as a significant ingredient in meat and meals processing,” Abhiram Seth, managing director of AquAgri, informed AFP.
And whereas it has not been historically common in India, in July the federal government introduced some $85 million in subsidies for seaweed farming initiatives over the following 5 years.
Seaweed cultivation is already frequent in Japan, China, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Curiosity is rising in Australia, which has outlined a plan to develop a $100 million business by 2025.
Seth stated there was potential to learn each the setting and farmers like Murgesan.
“Seaweeds clear up the water. On the similar time seaweed cultivators get a sustainable earnings with out having to relocate to city areas to search out work,” he defined.

Seaweed doesn’t require fertilizer, freshwater, or pesticides. Kelp, some of the generally farmed varieties, grows at a fee of 61cm (two toes) a day.
They take up an estimated 173 million metric tons of carbon annually — the identical annual emissions as New York State, in line with a 2016 paper in Nature Geosciences.
And a latest research by the College of California discovered that mixing crimson seaweed in animal feed might assist cut back methane emissions.
“We now have sound proof that seaweed in cattle food plan is efficient at decreasing greenhouse gases and that the efficacy doesn’t diminish over time,” Ermias Kebreab, director of the World Meals Heart, stated within the analysis.
In addition to absorbing carbon dioxide when it’s alive, when it dies and drops to the seafloor, seaweed additionally retains carbon within the sediment, Ganesan added.
Nonetheless scientists say there might be downsides to farming it.
“Overharvesting seaweed has its drawbacks as a result of it varieties the meals for a lot of reef dwelling creatures like sea urchins and reef fish,” stated marine biologist Naveen Namboothri, from Dakshin Basis, including that extraction might disturb the reef.
Aware of those dangers, Murgesan and the opposite farmers work for less than 12 days a month and don’t harvest throughout the primary fish breeding season, between April and June.
Seaweed farmer Vijaya Muthuraman, who by no means went to highschool, depends on conventional data.
“We solely develop as a lot as we want and in a manner that doesn’t hurt or kill the fish,” she stated, sitting on the shore after the day’s toil, the mild surf rising and ebbing behind her.
The hazards of getting damage by the rocky sea mattress or stung by jellyfish at all times lurk for the ladies, however they appeared undaunted, laughing and chatting away their worries.
“We face a number of hazards however this work has given me and my household some dignity,” she stated, including: “Our residing requirements have improved and now others in my village additionally wish to turn into seaweed farmers.”