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As environmental doomsday predictions become uncomfortably close to reality, the world must accelerate actions aimed at providing solutions, both for the life of the planet and for the present and future generations of people living on it. The United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which constitute a collaborative roadmap outlining global issues that require immediate attention. These goals are designed to lead to actions that end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 (i.e., 8 years from now), all people enjoy peace and prosperity. This chapter focuses primarily on goals 2 and 3, and it provides highlights with respect to the pivotable roles that seaweeds can play to help achieve them. Specifically, seaweeds can help end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition, and ensure healthy lives and well-being for all. Radically improving agricultural sustainability is a high priority, and seaweeds and their extracts can make important contributions to food production systems (i.e., from field to fork). Key nutritional components present in marine macroalgae offer opportunities to displace or supplement some ingredients in prepared or processed foods in favor of improved, broader nutrition. Research on the utilization of seaweeds in agriculture is also highlighted, and calls to action to meet the SDGs are loud and increasing, and seaweeds can be a viable part of the solution.

The Philippine seaweed industry is affected by multiple but interrelated risks. Farmers mainly encountered environment-related risks (e.g. disease, pest infestations) which, if unmanaged, could result to production failure. Traders and processors considered volatility of seaweed supply and poor quality of raw materials as precursors of other risks such as increased competition among local traders and processing companies. Gender differences in awareness and knowledge of risks were more prominent among seaweed farmers but not among traders and processors as roles become more homogenous up the value chain. Poor governance resulted in the adoption of informal and market-driven strategies to prevent or minimise losses. However, this restricted farmers to participating in higher-income trading and processing activities and contributed to increased market inefficiency. The lack of government support has also curtailed the capacity of traders and processors to engage in product development and diversification. Gender and community experiences influence and shape people’s understanding of their situations and environment including their coping and adaptive strategies in sustaining livelihoods amidst recurring risk events. Embedding informal structures and the differential needs of the stakeholders in the national institutional framework is therefore essential for the promotion of resilient and sustainable seaweed industry.

Seaweed farming is a major economic endeavor among the households in the key seaweed-production areas in the Philippines because of its high profitability potential relative to farming effort. This study used Social Network Analysis (SNA) to explore the social structure and the nature of support mechanism at the production segment of the seaweed value chain to understand the differential access of women and men to information, resources, and services. The data was obtained from Focus Group Discussions (FGD) with 115 seaweed farmers in Zamboanga City, Bohol, and Tawi-Tawi. The resulting social support maps show a strong reliance on internal support sources (e.g. family) across the selected parameters (training, farm preparations, product flow) and a gender difference on the extent of access to external sources. This study highlighted the relevance of using SNA in value chain analysis (VCA) to understand the relationship patterns among the actors and their implications on policy making and overall governance of the seaweed industry.

Vegetative thalli of brown and green Kappaphycus alvarezii were cultivated in Panagatan Cays, Caluya, Antique, Philippines, over 60- and 90-day periods using hanging-long line (HL), fixed off-bottom (FB), and hanging long line–fixed off-bottom (HL–FB) methods to determine the daily growth rate and yield. A completely randomized design experiment with six replicates of 5-m line cultivation rope was used in the study. An economic analysis was prepared to determine the viability of the culture systems used. To determine the effect of strain, culture technique, culture days and culture month on the daily growth rate and yield, a combination of these different factors was treated as a single treatment. Results show that at 60-day culture period, daily growth rate and yield in all techniques were lowest in July–August and highest in January–February. Higher growth rate (2.3–4.2% day−1) and yield (3.6–15.8 fresh weight kg m−1 line−1) were obtained from September to February. Significant differences (P<0.05) in growth rate and yield were determined between culture months. At 90-day culture period, there were no significant differences in growth rate and yield between culture months; however, a significant difference was found between culture techniques. The average production (dry weight kg crop−1) of K. alvarezii when grown at 60-day culture period during lean and peak months using HL, FB and HL–FB techniques ranged from 421 to 3310 kg with HL–FB the highest and FB the lowest. Net income, return on investment (ROI) and payback period were all positive during peak months, but negative values were obtained during lean months. Only seaweed grown on HL technique during the peak months at 90-day culture period showed positive income, ROI and payback period. The seasonality of cultivating K. alvarezii is shown in this present study. This paper further shows the best culture technique to be adopted at cert