85% of the global population engaged in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors live in Asia[1]and 680 million people worldwide live in low-lying coastal areas[2].These livelihoods are at increasing risk to the impacts of climate change, with warmer sea surface temperatures, ocean acidification and sea-level risedamaging marine ecosystems and driving enormous decline in fish stocks.
There is a need to diversify coastal livelihoods for fishing communities. Seaweed farming offers a unique opportunity to deliver this sustainable livelihood adoption, whilst also contributing to the restoration of depleted fish stocks and marine ecosystems. This growing sector now employs more than 250,000 people across Indonesia. Seaweed contributes around 40% of national fisheries production in Indonesia and with only 20% of the 12 million hectares potential marine cultivation area currently being used for production, there is significant potential for growth. The vast availability of land, the diversity of natural species, the current growth rate of the global aquaculture sector and the ability to deliver jobs to vulnerable coastal regions indicate the potential role for seaweed farming in delivering economic,environmental and social impact.
Despite this rapid growth of the seaweed sector in recent years, there has been a demonstrable decline in Kappaphycus biomass production in many cultivation sites including Tanzania, India, Madagascar,Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. This is predominantly due to rising sea surface temperatures, extreme weather, breeding techniques, current practices and overall reduction in genetic diversity of seaweed and subsequent vulnerability to diseases and pathogens such as ice-ice and epiphyte infection that lead to a reduction in growth rate and yields. Whilst some of these variables are manageable through innovation and improved practices, long-term climate projections will invariably lead to a challenging growing environment for farmers (see Figure’s 1 and 2).
Local environmental conditions are critical for effective growth and yield of harvested seaweed. Sea surface temperature for Kappaphycus cultivation needs to be between 25 and 30°C for optimal growth; water salinity should be between 32 and 34 parts per thousand (ppt); pH levels between 7.5 and 8; Nitrate between 1 and 3 parts per million (ppm); and Phosphate between 0.01 and 0.021 ppm. All of the environmental parameters above can be monitored through water quality sensors and IoT live data analysis; giving farmers the ability to manage their production growth and yield more effectively.
By deploying sensors and other forms of remote monitoring, it will not only help empower farmers by giving them a better understanding of the growing environment and importantly the changes that are occurring, but also provide a level of buyer transparency that could radically impact their future earnings over time. For instance, if rapid changes in local sea surface temperature are observed then farmers can harvest early to protect against ice-ice, thus ensuring a monthly income and increasing financial resilience to extreme weather. However, with marine heatwaves, increased rainfall and extreme weather events becoming more intense and more frequent,there is an urgent need to protect farmers production and yield against climate risk.
Lack of product innovation is becoming increasingly evident in the aquaculture insurance industry and current products have relatively low uptake with seaweed farmers. Farmers tend to have limited knowledge of and access to financial products for protecting both life and livelihoods. Consequently, low-income farmers turn to informal sources or traders for financing.
Much focus in recent years has been placed on parametric insurance for managing the impact of drought on agricultural yields,but there is fairly limited application within the aquaculture industry.Innovation and effective management, therefore, is needed to deliver needs-based protection products for the seaweed farmers at the front-line of climate change. A parametric protection solution could protect farmers’household income against extreme weather events such as marine heatwaves, algal blooms, typhoons and increased rainfall. Smart contracts, backstopped by an Ethereum blockchain ecosystem platform, would pay the farmers as soon as a pre-determined parameter (e.g. sea-surface temperature, salinity, pH levels) is triggered. This would ensure that farmers and their families are able to withstand economic shocks and subsequent loss of livelihood without the financial stress and burden of borrowing from friends and family.
However, parametric insurance is costly and requires institutional-level subsidies from government, development agencies and international financial institutions (e.g. World Bank and Asian Development Bank) to support premium payments for those that cannot afford it. With the exponential growth of the aquaculture sector and increasing climate risk, there has never been more crucial time for cross-border collaboration and multi-stakeholder initiatives for implementing innovative protection solutions.
[1] FAO.2018, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture
[2] IPCC Ch.4,2019
