Cultivation and Value-added Products from Seaweed, Kappaphycus alvarezii – IFFCO to Market CSIR’s Seaweed Extract Technology

CSIR constituent laboratory, CSIR-Central Salt and Marine Chemical Research Institute (CSIR CSMCRI), Bhavnagar has developed technologies related to easy cultivation of economically important seaweed, namely Kappaphycus alvarezii, and value-added products from the seaweed. The CSIR knowhow on the seaweed was disseminated to the fishing community in coastal regions of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat as supplementary activity to existing fishing activities. More than eight hundred Self-Help Groups (SHGs) are engaged in seaweed farming in the Tamil Nadu region. It provides a regular and sustainable income source for women, with each of them earning on an average 5000 per month for a period of eight months in a year.

The CSIR technologies on the seaweed have been transferred for commercialization and wider reach to the beneficiaries. The Indian Farmers Fertilizer Co-operative Ltd. (IFFCO), will market seaweed bio-fertilizer under the trade name ‘Sagarika’. The seaweed cultivation is being taken up by Gujarat Livelihood Promotion Council, a Government of Gujarat Undertaking at Simar, Kalapan and Miyani.