Seaweed Seedlings Banks Urged In 65 Provinces In RP

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Darwin Wee / 07 Sept) To further improve the quality of seaweed and boost the production of local seaweed farms, the Department of Science and Technology and the Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development (PCAMRD) urged Wednesday key members of the seaweed industry to establish a seedling production system in all the 65 coastal provinces in the country.

Cesario R. Pagdilao, DOST's deputy executive director, said the seaweed seedling production system will help the Philippines meet the expanding industrial use of seaweed and raise millions of income in exports.

"For several years now, we have been talking about the plight of thePhilippines’ seaweed productions, and competitions amongother Asian countries; however; only minimal solution is beingdiscussed to address the problems."

"By establishing seaweed seedlingproduction system in all the 65 coastal provinces in the country, it will definitely clear the entire back log in the development of the local seaweed industry,” he said.

Pagdilao, who spoke about the "The Gene Bank Project," during the two-day 7th Mindanao Seaweed Congress here, said the existing seaweed seedling banks do not have the capacity tosustain and maintain distribution in key seaweed production areas in the country.

He said the country has only 11 existing on-farm seaweed seedling banks, a land-based seedling production, and one seaweed gene bank, which is currently located in the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines in Quezon City.

At present, there are 255,000-ha. all over the country that are available for seaweed cultivation, but only 58,000 of these are currently being used as farms.

"We have to fill up the remaining sea hectares for seaweed farming, but the question is that as of now we don't have substantial seaweed seedlings to be planted in those areas," he pointed out.

In a separate interview, Alfredo O. Isidro, seaweed and aquaculture devolvement advisor of the US-funded Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM), said that many seaweed processors and seaweed farmers’ associations in the country have little knowledge on the importance of seaweed and gene banks in their respective areas.

"By establishing a seaweed seedling production system in every key seaweed production will help farmers continue its production, especially when seaweed are under attack by diseases, thus in return, processors will also benefit from the continuation of seaweed harvest all year round," he said.

One of the most diseases in seaweeds is locally called the “ice-ice” which affects and whitens the stalks of seaweeds and withers its production. It has become prevalent in extensive seaweed-producing areas in the country, particularly in Mindanao where 60 percent of the total seaweed production comes from.