PROJECTS

The Seaweed Revolution on Semau

Semau is a small island in the Timor sea, 3 kms from the West Timor mainland at its nearest point (Map). It has many bays and long beaches, making seaweed cultivation appropriate and feasible.

When the NTA first went to Semau in the early 1990s there was no seaweed growing, although this was widespread in Bali. Seaweed was also well established on the remote island of Sabu, mainly through the efforts of a dynamic Indonesian NGO, Ie Rae, led by Dr Frans Raja Haba. Colin and Ria visited Sabu on several occasions in the mid-1990s, aiming to learn from the methods of Ie Rae. This was in both seaweed and general extension. We  picked up a lot of ideas, which we’ve since applied through the NTA.

Sabu people specialized in the cultivation of the blue green seaweed which was used in making various medicines and foods including those for household pets. Dr Frans had also set up a factory to bale the dried crop which he sold in bulk. Colin and Ria were most impressed by the high incomes being earned. They arranged for Pak Meki, an extension officer working on pulau Semau for the NTA’s counterpart, the YPMPS, to visit Sabu, learn seaweed production techniques. Pak Meki then carried back planting material to grow off Semau.

The seaweed samples brought to Semau were quickly multiplied by the villagers. The Sabu system introduced on Semau depended on bamboo rafts, where seaweed was attached by strings to each raft and grew over 45 days to 20-25 kgs when it was harvested. It was then dried in the sun for 3 days. Initially the system worked well, and hundreds of surrounding farmers began growing the crop. But after a year or so the rafts were targeted by big turtles, which ate most of the crop. Production languished, and by the late 1990s only Pak Meki and one other extension officer were attempting to grow it.

Then in the early 2000s, after checking elsewhere, we and the YPMPS introduced the ‘long-line’ system where seaweed was attached at 10cm intervals to long 40-50 metre lines. This proved far more successful, and largely avoided turtles. After this, however, the seaweed was attacked by a fungus, ais ais, which decimated the crop. This again threatened to put people out of production, and indeed the large majority turned away from seaweed to other activities.

But following this we introduced resistant varieties of seaweed, and the incidence of fungus was greatly reduced. In the last few years high seaweed prices have enabled thousands of Semau farmers to quadruple their previous incomes. Each farmer has 30-40 lines, making for lots of work although securing a big reward. This year prices have declined, but seaweed still enables families to earn around twice the incomes they can get from the alternatives cattle, garlic and vegetables.

Seaweed is a success story, but illustrates the pitfalls occuring on the route to doing better. Nothing is easy, but the lesson is that we have to keep trying.

More Information About Seaweed

Seaweed is a big international commodity used for both food and for medicinal purposes. Seaweed has a ready marketing and a relatively good price which has generally tended to rise over the years. Its average local price in 2007 was 60 cents/kg, but in 2008 the price has reached 80 cents and predictions are good.

In the mid-1990s seaweed was barely cultivated in eastern Indonesia, although some innovative groups had made a start. One of these was a kelompok (group) on Savu island which had been sponsored by a local NGO called Ie Rae. The seaweed produced on Savu (about 150 kms from Kupang) was being baled and sent to markets in Korea and Denmark, and the producers were earning a good return.

When NTA heard about this, we thought it was worth investigating and two members of the Australian Monitoring Team spent 10 days on Savu learning what they could. After that, a local NTA-paid extension officer went to Savu to check further, and brought back anakan or seedlings which could be planted off Semau. This proved to be a difficult process and the first batch of seedlings died because they were inundated by a heavy rainstorm.

But in 1996 the two NTA-paid officers on Semau island started growing seaweed themselves by attaching the plants to bamboo rafts floated about 50 metres out to sea in relatively calm places. Other people watched this effort, and after a few months hundreds of farmers were trying seaweed off rafts. But turtles proved to be a problem when they started to eat the bundles of growing seaweed and virtually destroyed the crop. After a year or so, the only people still trying seaweed were the two extension officers, and even they were at the end of their tether.

Then someone from the local Department of Fisheries suggested using ‘long-lines’ would be more effective. Growers extend nylon lines of about 30–50 metres from near the beach and out to sea, and this method proved to be much better. By 2000 many hundreds of farmers were growing seaweed on 45 day cycles 5–6 times a year and earning much more money than they had had before. A competitive market of traders quickly developed, and bunches of seaweed dried over two days were sold to these people.

More problems arose when the crops were attacked by the fungus ais ais, which reduces the yield by 70-80%. Again, cultivation declined in 2003 and 2004. But then resistant varieties were introduced from Korea and the Philippines and the situation is much better today. Thousands of farmers on Semau have seaweed as their main income-earner, and the sea off most beaches is crowded with long lines out to a distance of 200-300 metres. The NTA now sponsors many kelompok members in this very productive enterprise. What’s even better about seaweed cultivation is that most of the work occurs during the dry season when the heavy seas of the wet season have disappeared, and the locals have a useful enterprise that can be performed when there is no rain and subsistence gardening activity declines. This indeed has been a successful innovation, and the NTA is proud of its part in facilitating it.