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Seaweed farming provides a lifeline for drought-ravaged coastal maize farmers 

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Zainab Kasalu has escaped the poverty of drought crop losses at the coast by farming seaweed 600 meters out into the Indian Ocean.

As part of the Kibuyuni Seaweed-Self-Help Group in Lunga Lunga, Kwale County, Zainab now gathers seaweed daily to deliver a steady income of Sh36,000 each six weeks where she was previously earning just Sh9,000 every four months from mixed cropping on her plot, which often failed.

Seaweed farming is emerging as a liberator for coastal communities, with self-help groups leasing land and opening the way for year-round earnings for their members.

According to a World Bank report on the global seaweed market, it has the potential to grow by an extra $11.8 billion by 2030. This is driven by its use in making plant conditioners, food products with medical benefits, alternative protein, animal feeds, pet food, medicines, fabrics, degradable plastics, construction material, and as a reducer of methane gas production by cows.

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Before joining the group in 2022, Zainab could barely scrape together Sh9,000 a month. “My maize had failed each successive season. Meanwhile, our old coconut trees had become unproductive with the few coconuts we collected barely having a market,” she ruefully recalled.

Today, Zainab earns about Sh36,000 every month and a half when the seaweed matures. This has empowered her to educate her two high school-aged sons comfortably. “My husband relied on fish and prawn farming which doesn’t earn as much as it used to because of an increase in small fishers and decreased fish stocks which has seen him take up odd jobs in hotels in Shimoni (a port village in Lunga Lunga frequented by tourist). If I hadn’t gotten this job, our family would be in poor shape,” she said.

Her day often starts with wading into the Indian Ocean with about five other seaweed farmers to one of the six-block farms located 600 meters from shore. Though this barely happens, she often hopes to have been scheduled for work during low tide when the ocean subsides making it easier to walk in the water and more easily see any sharp coral rocks. Each block farm has 300 ropes where the seaweed seedlings are planted and tended to for 45 days until they mature. The seaweed is grown along the ropes to make it easier to manage and harvest.

The women look at the length and feel for the weight of the seaweed to ensure it is growing on time. It grows by at least three kilograms every day. They also check for pests that feed on the seaweed such as barnacles and diseases which discolour the red seaweed or stunt their growth reducing their market value. The ropes are also tightened and cleaned of algae that compete for nutrients and light with the seaweed. This is laborious work and takes the women three to six hours daily.

“Early maturing seaweed also needs to be harvested as they deprive the rest of nutrients and light. We often clean and save these fast growers in a clean environment, They are cut up before being reseeded by tying them on the ropes once we harvest all the seaweed,” Zainab explained.

The Kibuyuni Seaweed-Self-Help Group started in 2010, now has over 250 members farming red seaweed or spinosum species. According to the group’s industrial manager Nasoro Mohammed, on average, they harvest 5.4 tons of seaweed every month which is sold to the Seaweed East Africa Company among other buyers.  

“The Kibuyuni Seaweed Cooperative buys seaweed from farmers for Sh20 a kilogram and sells it to buyers for Sh30. Half the profit goes to farmers while the other five shillings is reinvested into the cooperative,” Nasoro explained.

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The group has also ventured into small-scale value addition, drying, and processing the seaweed into powder and soaps.

Despite the Kibuyuni coastal line being populated by seaweed, the group’s founders first called the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) to carry out feasibility studies on the viability of commercial seaweed farming. This was followed by training on how to populate the seaweed, harvesting techniques that ensure it quickly regenerates as well as learning how to dry, store, and add value to it.


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