Farming of seaweeds

Seaweed farming at sea is becoming an increasingly competitive biomass production candidate for food and related uses. With exponential growth over recent decades, farmed seaweed output reached 24 million tons by 2012. However, just eight Asian nations produced 99% of that while most of the world's 150 countries and territories with coasts were yet to begin seaweed farming. Using current technology, extensively available sea areas may be cultivated to produce crops that require no freshwater or fertilizers, while providing a variety of valuable ecosystem services. Following a deductive or principle-based approach that establishes primary production from seaweed biosynthesis as a basis of food production, this chapter describes the fundamentals of seaweed farming, harvest and postharvest techniques, ecological and economic considerations, and a perspective on opportunities and challenges. The objective is to provide both an overall account of the state of the art on seaweed farming as well as a contribution to the industry's sustainable development.