Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Seaweed Mission
Mains level: Seaweed economy
TIFAC has unveiled a Seaweed Mission for commercial farming of seaweeds and its processing for value addition.
Note the species of edible seaweeds mentioned in the newscard.
Seaweed Mission
The Mission envisages the following activities:
- establishing model demonstration farms over one hectare for the cultivation of economically important seaweeds in nearshore and onshore along the Indian coast
- Kappaphycus all over Indian coast
- Gracilaria dura in Gujarat
- Gracilariaverrucosa in Chilika Lake (Odisha)
- Ulva Linza or Ulva prolife rain Chilika Lake (Odisha)
- Ulva Lactuca or Ulva fasciata or Ulva indica all over India coast
Proposed Sites: Gujarat / Tamil Nadu / Andhra Pradesh / Odisha / Karnataka
Seaweed production in India
- Out of the global seaweed production of ~ 32 million tons fresh weight valued around 12 billion US dollars. China produces ~57 %, Indonesia ~28% followed by South Korea.
- India is having a mere share of ~0.01-0.02%.
- Despite several advantages, commercial seaweeds cultivation has not been taken place in the country at an appropriate scale, as being practised in South-East Asian countries.
- By an estimate, if cultivation is done in ≈10 million hectares or 5% of the EEZ area of India, it can provide employment to ~ 50 million people.
- Seaweed cultivation also enhances ocean productivity, abates algal blooms and sequesters millions of tons CO2.
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