Abstract
Due to its large, exclusive economic zone, India has considerable potential for implementing large-scale cultivation of macroalgae. However, such cultivation requires the availability of, and access to, sites where technical, legal, governmental, and environmental factors are favorable. This review discusses the challenges that have held back the development of seaweed cultivation in India. The review is based on a literature survey and informal discussions with industry-related personnel. It cites the strong need for clear and definitive policies related to access to and use of coastal waters to enable the Indian seaweed industry to reach its full potential. The main challenges that the expansion of macroalgal cultivation in India face are related to legal and regulatory aspects that can be resolved by focusing the policy issues on providing planning tools toward success. In addition, there is a strong need for an adequate bioeconomy that clearly defines the need for marine macroalgal biomass for food, chemicals, and biofuels. Furthermore, the Indian government needs to allocate sufficient funds for accelerating seaweed R&D in areas of seaweed cultivation, harvesting, processing technologies, and their implementation in the local industry.
About the authors
Kapilkumar Nivrutti Ingle is a former MFA scholar at Tel Aviv University. His research area was offshore seaweed cultivation. He is currently working as a research scholar at the University of Szeged, Hungary. His current research area is landscape ecology, particularly on non-native tree plantation and its impact on native biodiversity.
Hadar Traugott is a PhD student at Tel Aviv University. She has a BSc in chemical engineering from Ben-Gurion University and an MSc in mechanical engineering from Tel Aviv University. Her research area is offshore seaweed cultivation.
Alexander Golberg is a faculty member at the Porter School of Environment and Earth Sciences, Tel Aviv University. His interests are in biological systems engineering, bioenergy, macroalgae biorefineries, new sources for food, chemicals and fuels, exergy and applied thermodynamics, and electroporation. He received his Ph.D. in Bioengineering at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Government of Israel, the Israeli Energy, Infrastructure and Water Resources Ministry, the Boris Mints Institute, and the Tel Aviv University Center for Renewable Energy, as this study is made possible by their funding. Kapilkumar Ingle is Stipendium Hungaricum Scholar. The authors would like to express great appreciation to Prof. Alexander Liberzon of Tel Aviv University for his contribution to the study. The authors wish to express their sincere appreciation to the dedicated reviewers of the article.
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Article note
This article is part of the special issue series of Botanica Marina: Seaweed resources of the world: a 2020 vision, which has started publication in Botanica Marina 2019, vol. 62, issue 3. The series is guest-edited by Alan T. Critchley, Anicia Hurtado, Leonel Pereira, Melania Cornish, Danilo Largo and Nicholas Paul.
©2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
