Boom time for Sulu seaweeds farmers
It was built for fishermen in Panamao, Sulu, but local residents growing exportable “agar-agar” (seaweeds), from where Carrageenan is derived, are just as lucky for their new seaside fish landing facility has improved their productivity too.
Roadside eateries being run by Tausog and Samah villagers engaged in seaweeds production have also sprouted like mushrooms in the surroundings of the newly built facility in Barangay Asin, a coastal district in Panamao.
The seaweeds are raised in open seas, tied in strings and corral formations to prevent them from being swept away by waves as they spread like grass.
Abdulwatan Muhammad, officer-in-charge of the Department of Social Welfare and Development office in Sulu, said the fish landing facility, built through bayanihan by local community organizations and the area’s local government using funds from World Bank channeled through the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Social Fund Project (ASFP), has improved the productivity of local communities in Panamao.
“For people there, it’s a gift from Allah, coursed through the World Bank and the ASFP,” Muhammad said.
Muhammad said the project has also brought local residents to a critical awareness, as a consequence of their cooperation in constructing the facility through bayanihan, that peace and sustainable development in Panamao, a poor town, is achievable if they fuse ranks, set aside their parochial and partisan interests, and help their LGU pursue more socio-economic programs in the municipality.
The ASFP, which is under the ministerial control of ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan, has dozens of projects funded by the World Bank and the Japan Bank on International Cooperation.
Experts from World Bank twice rated as “satisfactory” in the past three years the implementation by the ARMM’s executive department of its projects in the autonomous region.
Panamao has been bereft of a facility where fishermen and villagers engaged in Carrageenan farming can use as a springboard for the dispersal of their merchandise until the local communities built their fish landing facility with the help of ASFP.
Carrageenans, or carrageenins, belong to the marine plant family sulphated polysaccharides. The name was derived from a type of seaweed that was first abundant only along the Irish coastline.
Gelatinous extracts of agar-agar have been used as food additives for hundreds of years. There has been continuing research by foreign governments and transnational pharmaceutical giants on many other uses of Carrageenen derived from the plant.
Carrageenan is widely used in the food and other industries as thickening and stabilizing agents. A particular advantage is that they are pseudoplastic — they thin under shear stress and recover their viscosity once the stress is removed.
Processed Carrageenan is used as additives for cosmetics, food, including ice cream, and synthetic lubricants.
The largest producer of agar-agar is the Philippines, particularly the provinces in ARMM, where cultivated seaweed produces about 80% of the world supply.
The most commonly used are Cottonii (Kappaphycus alvarezii, K.striatum) and Spinosum (Eucheuma denticulatum), which together provide about three quarters of the world production.
“There are very clear indications now of improving economy in Panamao with the improving productivity of agar-agar farmers there,” Muhammad said.
