A Comparative Economic Analysis of Two Seaweed Farming Methods in Tanzania
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Date
2007-01
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Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association
Abstract
Seaweed farming has become an established aquaculture industry in Tanzania over the last decade. It is a significant export earner as well as an income and employment generator in coastal communities where it is practiced. It is a sustainable form of aquaculture that has particularly benefited women and contributes to the governments’ poverty alleviation program (Bryceson 2002). In Zanzibar, it has become a major source of income for women farmers (Wallevik and Jiddawi 2001). While increasing workload, it also has increased their economic purchasing power as well as created more social empowerment of women (Ako 1997). The Tanzanian government has called for the aggressive expansion of seaweed farming in the recently adopted Seaweed Development Strategic Plan (SDSP 2005). The plan calls for the expansion of Kappaphycus alvarezii commercially known as “cottonii” (Figure 1) which commands a higher farm gate price than Eucheuma denticulatum, commercially known as “spinosum” (Figure 2). However, spinosum is more widely grown within the country since cottonii is more environmentally sensitive, leading to disease problems known as “ice-ice” and
die-offs (Doty and Alvarez 1975, Uyenco et al. 1981, Collén et al. 1995, Largo 1998). Farmers have traditionally farmed cottonii using the peg and line method but the mortality rate can be high and following a die-off farmers can spend up to 6 months trying to produce seed rather than farming seaweed (Mmochi et al. 2005, Msuya 2006a). To combat the problem of cottonii die-off that is experienced when the peg and line method is used in Tanzania, the Sustainable Coastal Communities and Ecosystems (SUCCESS) Program has introduced the deep-water floating line method to the Msichoke group in Mlingotini village, Bagamoyo District, Tanzania (Mmochi et al. 2005, Msuya 2006a, 2006b). This method has been recommended as a way to increase seaweed production in Tanzania (Rice et al. 2006).
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Citation
Msuya, F.E., M.S. Shalli, K. Sullivan, B. Crawford, J. Tobey and A.J. Mmochi. 2007. A Comparative Economic Analysis of Two Seaweed Farming Methods in Tanzania. The Sustainable Coastal Communities and Ecosystems Program. Coastal Resources Center, University of Rhode Island and the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association. 27p.