THE Philippines, with a total coastline of 36,289 kilometers, has marine resources that provide food to millions of Filipinos and livelihood to a great number of rural families. One of these is seaweeds, those marine plants that grow abundantly in shallow reef flats and in lagoons with a water depth of less than two meters at high tide.

"Over the years, the economic contribution of seaweed resources to the country's economy has been recognized and interest in their development has been growing particularly with the increasing demand in the foreign trade for these resources as raw materials for many industries," said the primer on the status of seaweed industry in the Philippines published by the Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development (PCAMRD).

Cebu inmates' tribute to Michael Jackson
For minute updates follow Sun.Star on Twitter

As an industry, seaweed farming or the gathering of natural stocks is a viable venture. "Our seaweed production is still the biggest aquaculture producer of the country providing livelihood to more than 100,000 poor coastal families," reports Dr. Rafael D. Guerrero III, the PCAMRD executive director. "Average income per family is P15,000 per 60 days per one-fourth hectare."

Currently, there are more than 150,000 hectares of seaweed farms throughout the country. Most of them are found in coastal barangays in Western Mindanao, Central and Eastern Visayas, and Southern Tagalog. These regions account for 60 percent of the country's total production.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), commercial production of seaweeds through farming is at present limited to a few countries in East Asia making it a high value crop with a high demand in the world market. The Philippines is noted for the culture of seaweeds along with Japan, China, Korea, and Taiwan.

The Philippines is home to various kinds of seaweeds of which 390 species have been identified as having economic value as food, animal feeds, fertilizers, diet supplement, medicines, and raw materials for industrial products.

Among the 60 varieties found in the Philippines which are reportedly edible are gulamang dagat, gamet, pocpoclo, culot, lato, guso, barls-barls, bulaklak bato, and balbalolang. Some of these varieties can be processed into jams, jellies, candies, pickles, baby?s food, and gulaman bars.

In Tiwi, Albay, some residents have discovered a pansit (noodles) made from seaweed, which has health benefits. The seaweed noodle is rich in calcium and magnesium and can be cooked into pansit canton, pansit luglug, spaghetti and carbonara.

So far, four species -- Halimada, Hypnea, Sargassum, and Asparagopsis -- have been used as feed or fodder for livestock. Species of Cladophora, Enteromorpha, Chaetomorpha, and Gracilaria are used to supplement or substitute for fishfood for cultured herbivorous fish.

The high potassium content of brown seaweeds like Sargassum, Turbinaria, Hormophysa, and Hydroclathrus make them ideal substitutes for costly fertilizer.

In Kidapawan City, Jose Riga has developed an all-purpose seaweed-based organic fertilizer and soil conditioner in stabilized pellets. The fertilizer is made from brown seaweed, cattle manure, stabilizing compounds and an organic binder fortified with soluble compounds of a number of nutrients.

Seaweeds have also some medicinal values. They are used to treat or prevent goiter, glandular troubles, stomach disorders, intestinal and bladder difficulties, unusually profuse menstrual flow, high-blood pressure, and high plasma-cholesterol level.

The Gracilaria species are used locally as pain relievers and ointments. It has been asserted that seaweeds may have curative properties for tuberculosis, arthritis, colds and influenza (or flu), worm infestations and even tumors.

Currently, a number of research studies have been conducted to investigate these claims and other effects of seaweed on human health.

Some studies have found that seaweed can promote weight loss. For this reason, seaweed extract is used in some diet pills. Other seaweed pills work similar to gastric banding, they will expand in the stomach to make the body feel more full.

Commercially, seaweeds are valued for their colloids or gluey substance, particularly agar, carrageenan, and alginate. Both agar and carrageenan are extracted from red seaweeds, while alginate is extracted from brown seaweeds.

Agar is used in making jellied desserts, as stabilizer in pie fillings, piping gels, icings, cookies, cream shells, and as thickening and gelling agent in poultry, fish and meat canning. In the medical and pharmaceutical industries, agar serves as a laxative, suspending agent for barium sulfate in radiology, ingredient for slow-release capsules and in suppositories and surgical lubricants, and as a disintegrating agent in tablets. It is also used as impression materials to make accurate casts in prosthetic dentistry, criminology and tool manufacturing.

Carrageenan, on the other hand, is used in making ointments, as a stabilizing agent in frozen dairy products, as emulsifying agent in water-insoluble drugs and herbicides, and as texturing agent in toothpaste and powder.

Alginates enjoy many of the same uses as carrageenan, but are also used in production of industrial products such as paper coatings, adhesives, dyes, gels, explosives and in processes such as paper sizing, textile printing, hydro-mulching and drilling. In the biomedicine and pharmaceutical industries, alginates are used in wound dressings, and production of dental moulds and have a host of other applications.

The Philippines is one of the pioneers in seaweed farming. Cultures of Porphyra, Eucheuma, and Caulerpa in the Philippine marine farms have been recorded as early as the 1960s. Through the initiative of Dr. Max Doty, a marine botanist at the University of Hawaii, and his local counterparts, the first technology for culture of Eucheuma was introduced to industry in 1973.

Commercial seaweed farmers first succeeded in cultivating Eucheuma in the reef areas of Mindoro, Aklan, Cuyo, Zamboanga, and Tawi-Tawi. Since then, seaweed production has gone overboard.

But like any agribusiness ventures, the seaweed industry has its own shares of problems. One of these is the erratic fluctuation in production caused by inefficient marketing and unstable buying and pricing policy of traders. The Philippines also stands to lose a significant share of the world market as buyers complain of poor quality seaweed produced in the country.

Production of seaweed is also beset with problems. The PCAMRD brochure explains: Productivity of farmed seaweeds has been declining due to predator grazing, the so-called ice-ice phenomenon, aging effect and negative growth rates as well as crop losses due to typhoons. Lack of quality seedlings or planting materials also hampers the expansion of farm sites.

Another reason for lower seaweed production in the country is due to climate change. According to Benson U. Dakay, president of the Seaweed Industry of the Philippines, the ideal temperature for seaweed is below 26 degrees Celsius but in recent years the temperature at the seaweed farms has gone above 26 degrees Celsius. As such, seaweed production has declined by as much as 50 percent in some areas in the country.

But despite all these problems, Dr. Guerrero is still hopeful and even recommends seaweed farming in the country. "It requires low inputs with high returns on investment," he points out. "It is labor intensive and offers good opportunities for the employment of the otherwise labor force in the coastal areas."