Seaweed Farming: An Alternative Livelihood for Coastal Communities

by Dr Gloria Naa Dzama Addico & Mr Kweku Amoako Atta deGraft-Johnson (Graphic Online) When one economic activity is on the decline, there is always the natural urge to look for alternatives. That is the situation confronting the coastal communities in the country where fishing and its ancillary activities have been their mainstay.
Over the past few decades, the dwindling fortunes of these fisher folks and their families as a result of the numerous problems confronting the fishing industry have reached alarming proportions which call for a concerted effort and strategy to explore viable alternatives.

Marine fisheries
According to that report, marine fisheries accounted for nearly 80 per cent of the fisheries sector.

Available information indicates that the sector offers employment to an estimated 10 per cent of the country’s population. It also employs over 60 per cent women and links with other sectors in providing raw materials especially the food processing companies and the hospitality industry while employing the services and products of other sectors to operate.

The decline in the volume of fish caught (almost halved over the past three decades from 800,000 to less than 500,000 metric tons) does not only affect the market price and for that matter the consumption pattern of Ghanaians, but more seriously translates into a sharp drop in the economic well being of the coastal communities that largely depend on the industry for survival.

While the government may take steps for the long-term revamping of the fishery sector, there is the need in the short and medium terms to do something for alternative livelihoods for the coastal communities. That was how the SeaBioGh Project was conceived.

It is a five-year project sponsored by the Danish Government in partnership with the Technical University of Denmark, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-Water Research Institute and the Chemical Engineering Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

It is also to advance the processing of seaweed for the production of biofuels (biodiesel and ethanol), including bioelectricity; and finally to establish demonstration farms for capacity building for seaweed farming and technology transfer and produce guidelines/manual for sustainable seaweed cultivation and processing in Ghana and the West African sub-region. READ MORE