New Delhi: An international webinar Cooperatives was held today on 28 January 2021 jointly organized by Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, Govt. of India, LINAC-NCDC (National Cooperative Development Corporation), Department of Agriculture, Coop & FW, Ministry of Agri & FW, Govt. of India and NEDAC, Bangkok.
Introductory remarks were made by webinar coordinator, Prof Krishna R Salin, Director, NEDAC Bangkok, Thailand who thanked Mr Sundeep Nayak MD, NCDC for organizing the webinar at an appropriate moment. Nayak informed that the NEDAC comprises of coastal countries participating in the webinar to deliberate on the potential and challenges in the seaweeds farming on the coastal zones. Experts from countries like Vietnam, Philippines and Canada and others participated in the international virtual event. Nayak also said that efforts are on to tying up with the Asian pacific countries to boost the seaweed cultivation.
Dr Rajeev Ranjan, Secretary Department of Fisheries and chief guest of the Webinar made a presentation on “Seaweed Cultivation and Value Chain Development in India” where he gave in detail about the action plan and strategy prepared by the Government to take up the seaweed cultivation on a Mission mode to make a dent in the seaweed business which has a huge international market with China, Japan and Indonesia, grabbing 80% of the total share. Japanese kelp, Eucheuma and Gracilaria are the top species. Together, they constitute about 70% of the production. Most traded commodities are lever, agar agar, redseaweeds and Undaria pinnafitida (brown algae). India has a coastal line of around 7,500 km which can be potential seaweed farming zones.
Currently, India’s seaweed cultivation production is just about 20,000 tonnes, whose value is estimated to be around USD 500 million ie 50 crore. This is one level we should be taken on the high priority level.
Dr Ranjan, said that the government is very serious about seaweed business which has huge potential with the world production valued around USD 12 billion. It is estimated to shot up to USD 26 billion by 2026. It has the potential to transform the way of farming, he said. Some 844 species of seaweeds have been reported from Indian seas, their standing stock is estimated to be about 58,715 tonnes (wet weight). Among them, 221 species are commercially important and abundant along the Tamil Nadu and Gujarat coasts and around Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Now, 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. Intensive efforts will be made by the implementing agencies to prioritize formation and promotion of FFPOs , support to cooperatives and women SHG’s in the potential coastal areas in the country, under the scheme, said Dr Ranjan.
The aim is to achieve seaweed production at 11.2 lakh tones by 2025. Raised to that level, this vocation can give employment to 6-7 lakh people particularly women, said the Secretary.
Each coastal State/UT will be asked to identify four entrepreneurs and support them with technical and financial sources while multiple number of seaweed banks would be taken up in maritime states/UTs in the coming years for key species, are among the part of the action plan.
Multiple numbers of seaweed banks would be taken up in maritime states/UTs in the coming years for key species.
Seaweed parks may be established in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat after working out feasibilities while Lakshadweep will be developed as a centre for development of seaweed. NIOT and ICAR- CMFRI will undertake efforts for development of Seaweed culture in Lakshadweep.
Also, mapping of potential sites and cultivation will be promoted for native seaweed species like Gracilaria dura, G.edulis, Gelidiella acerosa, Sargassum wightii etc, said the Secretary.
The matter concerning the restriction on cultivation of Kappaphycus species and introduction of exotic germplasms will be addressed with priority in consultation with Union Environment Ministry and coastal State Governments and Union Territories, said the official.
Moreover, the business is gender neutral. Women of the coastal communities can take up the seaweed farming without much investment but looking huge returns, Dr Ranjan said adding that two institutions CSIR- CSMCRI and CMfRI are among research institutions providing the technical know-how in the sector. Seaweed farming crops get ready in 45 days, Dr Ranjan said.
Manoj Joshi, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Food and Processing Industry stressed on focusing on a few clusters, to begin with and ensure convergence of the schemes to scale up the production. He said his ministry was all for extending support to the seaweed based food and in fact already had a scheme all India Centrally Sponsored PM Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises Scheme (PM-FME Scheme) for providing financial, technical and business support for upgradation of existing micro food processing enterprises.
Dr. Thierry Chopin, Prof of Marine Biology, University of New Brunswick, Canada said how seaweeds, a key component of Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) are providing important ecosystem services, which should be valued. Stating that ‘sea-weeds are more than sea-food’, he suggested that the value of the ecosystem services provided by the extractive components of IMTA systems will have to be recognized, accounted for and used as financial and regulatory incentive tools such as nutrient trading credits (NTC) than with carbon trading credits (CTC). For instance, he said, Nitrogen trading credits is between USD1.134 and 3.401 billion, Phosphorus trading credits: USD51.82 million while Carbon trading credits is just merely at USD29.15 million.
Dr. Blossom Kochhar, Chair, Blossom Kochhar Group, India dwelled in detail about the seaweeds usage in the cosmetics industry and their benefits, and opportunities in skincare products including moisturizer, anti-aging, antioxidant, skin repair and regeneration, cleanser products.
Abhiram Seth, Aqua Agri, India which works with more than 600 fisherfolk in the restricted districts of Tamil Nadu and cultivates at least 600-800 tonnes of seaweed per year, said that there is a huge scope and how his company has branched out to various range of products from producing carrageenan, which is a binding, food thickening and gelling agent for the food industry to producing bio-stimulants. He claimed that these can improve crop yield by 20 per cent For her part, Kavita Nehemiah, Snap Natural & Alginate which was established in 1979, and one of the largest processor of natural seaweed based products in India too shared her experience in the seaweed business catering food and pharma sectors and its socio-economic impact on the coastal communities. Seaweed farming is a labor intensive process and generates employment at every level, primarily for women, she added Dr. Nguyen Van Nguyen, Dy Dir, Res Institute for Marine Fish, Vietnam focused on seaweed research linked business in Vietnam saying that there is a huge export market in Japan while domestic market is growing at the fast pace. Regarding future of the seaweed market he said that his country has shifted from shrimp cultivation to the seaweed which is a sustainable food source.
Dr. Anicia Q Hurtado, University of the Philippines, Visayas, Philippines talked about innovations in red seaweed cultivation while Dr. Yugraj Yadava, Director, Bay of Bengal Programme IGO, India gave insight into seaweed farming for industrial applications in India. He said that India is a net importer of seaweed products. The unit value of seaweed products imported is usually higher than exported products. To sum up, there is a scope in the domestic market both for increasing production and value addition. To achieve this, he suggested that merely, a cooperative focussing only on production and drying is unlikely to make enough money to grow. Hence, he suggested, the entrepreneurship will be on internalizing as much of the value chain as possible.
At the same time, a clear Government policy will be required that inter alia covers identification of suitable areas, forward and backward linkages, market intelligence, knowledge and capacity building of stakeholders at different levels and finally access to finance, said Yadava.
On the similar lines, Dr. Atul Patne, Commissioner Fisheries, Maharashtra Government, India said that Maharashtra too has started taking step in this direction to harness the potential of seaweed. “Maharashtra state has a 720 Km Coastline comprising of 7 coastal districts. 12 Taluks from 4 coastal districts are primarily selected for seaweed cultivation in coordination with UNDP. Survey for the selection of suitable sites to cultivate seaweed need to be carried out by Central Fisheries Org. /Institutes immediately on priority,” he said.
Dr Rajesh Gopal and Nilesh Patil from NCDC presented seaweed scenario in the country and how the Government is promoting 3C concept: Cooperative-Corporate Collaboration, including with industry houses like CII, Assocham, PHDCCI, ICC, and others in the sector.
