Lupine Publishers |Agriculture Open Access Journal
Abstract
Seaweed cultivation is identified as a catalyst for social
progression in coastal communities. Despite the potentials, the seaweed
cultivation introduced to resettled coastal districts in Sri Lanka seems
not performing to the expectations owing to various reasons.
Farmers’ perspective as the leading stakeholders would facilitate the
understanding of such a complexity. Therefore, the study
attempted to assess the values and constraints related to seaweed
farming as perceived by the seaweed farmers. Two-stage
stratified random sampling technique was employed to draw a sample of
160 seaweed growers from the purposely-selected coastal
areas of northern Sri Lanka. A perceived ordinal ranking method was
exercised to assess the perceived importance, whilst Garrett’s
ranking technique to detect the judgment of the farmers about the
constraints. Next to fishing, seaweed farming received the highest
perceived importance of the respondents. Favourable income and
employment generation, the ability to easily manage with fishing,
supportive role in empowering women and the existence of a favourable
contract growing system were among the major causative
responses contributed to the perceived importance. Major constraints
identified in sea weed farming were adverse weather pattern
(19.6%), poor quality of existing planting materials (16.68%),
distortions prevailing in the purchasing mechanism (14.7%) and
improper aquatic environments (13.74%). Thus, the study concluded that
seaweed farming is perceived as an important livelihood
option for the coastal communities and developing strategies to mitigate
the impact of adverse environmental changes would
promote seaweed cultivation.
Keywords: Constraints; Perceived importance; Seaweed farming; Sri Lanka
Introduction
Seaweed cultivation has become increasingly popular as one
of the most important economic activities that can be practiced
in the coastal regions. The potential role that seaweed could play
in rural development being as a catalyst of social progression
[1] by rendering extensive employment opportunities [2] to the
coastal communities has already been identified. Accordingly,
the government of Sri Lanka has introduced seaweed farming to
resettled coastal districts in the northern part of the country to
improve socio-economic conditions in vulnerable regions through
the promotion of sustainable livelihood development. However, the
available sporadic information in this regard imply that the level
of performance seems to be suppressed by issues such as harsh
weather conditions [3-5] and improper aquatic environments,
which were commonly associated with seaweed farming. In
this backdrop, assessing the value and constraints related to
seaweed farming as perceived by the beneficiaries would uncover
trustworthy, qualitative and in-depth information that would
otherwise not become known. Such information would be essential
for future planning by the policy makers for a better design to meet
the farmer needs and can be useful both to fine-tune and enhance
the effectiveness of the existing seaweed cultivation system.
Methodology
This study was conducted in purposely-selected coastal areas
of Jaffna and Kilinochchi districts, located in the Northern Province
of Sri Lanka (Figure 1). Two-stage stratified random sampling
technique was employed to select 03 Divisional Secretariat (DS)
divisions and 04 Grama Niladhari (GN) divisions respectively and
finally to draw a sample of 160 seaweed growers. The required primary data were mainly collected through a structured and
pre-tested questionnaire, in-depth interviews and focus group
discussions. The perceived ordinal ranking method as previously
adopted by Crawford [6] was exercised to assess the perceived
importance of seaweed growers towards different livelihood
options, whilst Garrett’s ranking technique [7-9] was exercised to
detect the judgment of the farmers about the constraints faced by
them in seaweed cultivation.
Figure 1: Study locations (marked in red).
Results and Discussion
Farmers’ perceived importance towards seaweed farming
Next to fishing, seaweed farming received the highest
perceived importance of the respondents. Accordingly, sea
weed farming was perceived by 94% of farmers as either first
or second in importance (Figure 2). The reasons behind the
perceived importance were satisfactory income and generation of
employment, easily manageable nature with fishing, cooperative
role in women empowerment and the prevailing promising
contract growing system (Figure 2). Being an economically viable
alternative livelihood option [10], seaweed farming has diversified
the livelihood options of the farming communities and thereby
has provided a stable annual average income, which improves
household economic resilience [11] enabling a sustainable way
of life. This finding is in conformity with the findings of Zacharia
[12] and Tobisson [13] on the role of seaweed farming in coastal
livelihood improvement. On the other hand, previous studies
have identified the possibility of developing employment-incomeconsumption
relationships related to the seaweed farming [2].
This employment potential [6,14] is highlighted by the participants
and viewed that harvesting and initial preparation stages render
extensive employment opportunities. Especially, the shallow
water seaweed farming allows more involvement of women and
renders more employment opportunities for women during initial
preparation and harvesting stages.
Figure 2: Perceived importance towards different livelihood activities.
The interviewees identified that the seaweed farming is
instrumental in empowering women [13,15] within the study area.
Further, it was reported that without being much disturbing to
the primary economic activity, the seaweed farming can be easily
integrated with conventional fishing. Moreover, it was identified
that seaweed farming requires lesser time for its maintenance after
planting and allows farmers to engage in other activities as well.
Altogether, these major causative responses led to the perceived
importance and will assist in promoting the seaweed cultivation
within the study area. Apart from these major causes the provision
of rapid return on investment, the requirement of simple farming
techniques and an alternative for deprivation of terrestrial lands
for cultivation also affected for the perceived importance towards
seaweed farming.
Constraints for seaweed farming
The results indicated that the adverse weather pattern (19.6%)
is the major constraint faced by the seaweed farmers within the
study area and obtained the highest rank. In conformity to the
findings of Zamroni [3], the seasonal changes associated with
monsoonal weather pattern is critically affecting the seaweed
cultivation by limiting it to four cultivation seasons per year. Further,
heavy rains and severe weather conditions like prolonged higher
temperature periods regularly disturb the seaweed cultivation.
These unfavorable changes would ultimately affect both quality
and quantity [16] of seaweed harvest (Figure 3). Consisting with
the findings of Zamroni [3], the poor quality of planting materials
(16.68) obtained the second highest rank as a major constraint
faced by the seaweed farmers. Farmers ordinarily use traditional
self-propagation techniques using cuttings of the previous harvest.
However, inferior strains created by overutilization of the old
seaweed stocks may have negatively affected the growth rate and
quality of seaweed and avoided growers from optimizing their
yield.
Figure 3: Constraints ranked by seaweed growers.
The study identified that the buyers adopted a contract growing
system as the purchasing mechanism of seaweed. Such mechanisms
were further reported in the studies of Krishnan [3,17] and Hurdato
(2013) related to seaweed farming. As identified by the study,
low farm gate price, sporadic payments, and defective weighing
processes have distorted (14.7) the qualities of the existing
purchasing system. The respondents also viewed that the buyers
regularly justify these low prices, highlighting the importance of
technical provisions like raw materials and advisory support, which
are mainly provided by them. Conversely, few growers believed that
non-existence of layers of intermediaries and protection from time
to time price fluctuations would still make the contract growing
system more favourable.
The ideal aquatic environment provided in near-shore areas is
favourable for sea weed farming. However, due to high competition
and legal cut-offs imposed by the local authorities’ farmers haveshifted
the cultivation to less fertile improper aquatic environments
(13.74). Seaweed-farming locations were co-managed by coastal
villagers and idled seaweed farms also contributed to this problem.
Participants also indicated that seaweed cultivation locations away
from the near-shore areas increased the overall production cost
due to the expenses incurred for extra transportation.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Based on the logical interpretation of the findings, it can be
concluded that seaweed farming is perceived as an alternative
livelihood option for the coastal communities. This social
acceptability implies the possibility of further expanding seaweed
farming to other matching locations as a commercial enterprise.
The adverse weather pattern was the major constraint perceived
by the seaweed growers. In order to promote the existing system,
the establishment of a weather damage relief program from the
government, early warning system of sudden environmental
changes and commercial level seaweed nurseries are recommended.
Further, the collaborative action between key stakeholders is
identified as a necessity to promote the seaweed industry.
Acknowledgement
Authors would like to acknowledge the financial support offered
for the research study by National Agribusiness Development
Program, Presidential Secretariat, and Sri Lanka.
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