RAMESWARAM, Oct 31 — Draped in a colourful saree and shirt, Lakshmi Murgesan dives into the azure waters off India’s southern coast to collect seaweed, which is being hailed by scientists as a miracle crop that absorbs more carbon dioxide than trees.
“I am doing this for my children... It requires a lot of hard work, but I am able to earn good profits from about four months of work,” said Murgesan, who makes 20,000 rupees each month farming the fibrous macroalgae. “It is a miracle crop in many ways, it is eco-friendly, it doesn’t use land or fresh water. It absorbs carbon dioxide dissolved in water during photosyntheses and oxygenates the entire marine ecosystem,” Ganesan told AFP.
The tropical waters of Tamil Nadu form an ideal environment — with one raft yielding up to 200 kilos in around 45 days. “Seaweed has major use as a crop bio-stimulant for increasing productivity and making the crop more resilient to climate induced stresses. It’s also used as a major ingredient in meat and food processing,” Abhiram Seth, managing director of AquAgri, told AFP.
“We now have sound evidence that seaweed in cattle diet is effective at reducing greenhouse gases and that the efficacy does not diminish over time,” Ermias Kebreab, director of the World Food Center, said in the research.