Fundamentals of Good Agronomy Practices (GAP) for tropical carrageenan seaweeds

"Perhaps the single most important lesson to be learned by direct experimentation is that the natural world, with all its elements and interactions, represents a complex system and therefore we cannot understand it and we cannot predict its behavior...

Managers interact with the system: they do something, watch for the response, and then do something else in an effort to get the result they want. There is an endless iterative interaction that acknowledges we don't know for sure what the system will do - we have to wait and see... Interacting with the natural world, we are denied certainty. And always will be." - Dr. Michael C. Crichton, 2008

As of 2013 almost all Kappaphycus and Eucheuma production has been from family farms and almost all production has served as raw material for the manufacture of carrageenan. Production of Kappaphycus has failed to reach levels of supply that adequately meet demand. 

Although there will always be a need for major supplies of Kappaphycus and Eucheuma seaweed crops from small-holder operations there is also a growing need for farming of these crops to be undertaken in adequately capitalized integrates multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) systems and for processing to be undertaken using multi-stream, zero-effluent (MUZE) methods withing satoumi seascapes. This requires the development of written agronomy protocolas that can be developed and improved as experience, research and development lead beyond the empirical methds that prevail today. 

During more than 40 years of working in seaweed farm development I have obserced (and often participated in) many "failed" farm projects. Of course failure is inevitable for reasons clearly stated in the quotation (above) from Michael Crichton. The keys to eventual success are to make mistakes at as small a scale as possible; to learn from those mistakes; and to keep trying until you succeed. 

The present monograph summarizes some fundamental aspects of cot+spin farming that I have learned from seaweed farmers, colleagues, scientists and "the school of hard knocks". I hope that they can help others to efficiently work through failed projects to successful conclusions. 

This monograph is the lead-in to sets of agronomy protocols that we have developed for particular projects. Please contact us if you have a project that needs such procedures. 

Iain C. Neish, September, 2013, Makassar, Sulawesi Selatan, Indonesia