Food production needs to be doubled by 2050, yet 90% of increases must come from increases in productivity (i.e. yield/area) while only 10% from increasing farmed land area. The reason is that there is growing shortage of adequate land area to be added into agriculture. This is very much related to growing shortages of freshwater--essential for agricultural production at the rate of ca. 50.000 liters/ha/day.
70% of the world's available water is already used for irrigation
Climate change is having negative impacts on agriculture.
The ocean has all the water and space that is needed, plus an overabundance of nutrients for fertilizer-free seaweed production up to a considerable scale.
Seaweeds have been amply shown to be very productive and edible/nutritious. (24 million tons were produced by farming in 2012).
What is stopping the development of this extremely valuable resource? Can it be that most people have not asked themselves the question? That's why I asked it from you. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and insights.
Aquaculture starting from seaweed to oyster can satisfy human needs. Moreover culture of certain plankton species can be a good source of future medicine.
The food, chemical and energy security of mankind in future depends on the oceans and its resources. The countries which develops knowledge and skill in utilization of oceans along with its resources can sustain well than others.
Even I too keep often wondering why such valuable resource has not been developed globally except a few Asian countries. In my opinion, the public and policy makers awareness about seaweeds and its potential as food, feed, phycocolloids, fertilizer, chemical is some what poor in general worldwide except some Asian countries such as China, Japan, Korea etc.
In India, seaweeds have been utilized for extraction of phycocolloids from harvests made from wild stocks. It is only since 2000 onwards commercial farming of seaweeds began with an initiative of industry who licensed home grown patented technology for processing of cultivated biomass for production of low cost plant stimulant and carrageenan from fresh seaweed. This activity is now more wide spread in the country and has become popular among the coastal fisher folk as it significantly contributed to regional development in both socially and economically.
In conclusion, the reasons for not progressing seaweed farming cannot be attributed to a single factor. The drivers of seaweed farming may be diverse and governed by several regional factors. I'm sure, oceans will be soon tapped for meeting the growing needs of mankind in future.
Unlike land based food crops which have universal palate, seaweeds are traditionally been consumed only in Asian countries including few islands in Pacific Ocean. Eating patterns of people all over the world are recently undergoing marked changes, due to the globalization of markets along with innovation in food technology. This might pave ways to acceptance of seaweed based food to the larger proportion of populace. Besides this polysaccharide component in most of the seaweeds also pose considerable hindrance to its edible prospects.
As I wrote in several papers (available through ResearchGate under my profile), it is time for the Turquoise Revolution and the development of Aquanomy, through the Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) ecosystem management approach.
However, this will be a slow process, especially in the western world, because of a lack of awareness of the issues (or a refusal to confront and address them adequately).
But, we are there for the long run!
I am agree with the comments of Dr Reddy and others now it is time for the commercial cultivation of seaweeds as well as culture of micro algae utilizing the coastal waters.
Second important point is, in India agriculture is one of the major professions for rural people but today this sceneria was completely changed and people in rural areas are not come forward for agriculture due several other reasons. Besides most of the agricultural land converted into real estate, industrial and other purposes. In these circumstance it is necessary to depend on the marine waters and seaweeds for food, fuel and extraction of novel drugs through commercial cultivation.
Besides all, awareness programmes will be conducted in the coastal areas for uses and importance of commercial cultivation.
The culture of both marine and freshwater plants can add to the global food supply in an environmental and sustainable way. Many plants are well suited to applications of Iintegrated Multitropic Aquaculture, capitalizing on the nutrient capture of concurrently grown fed and unfed animals.
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