Diverse Seaweed Farming Livelihoods in Two Indonesian Villages
摘要
The Indonesian marine seaweed industry has expanded dramatically over the past two decades and now supports the livelihoods of approximately 62,000 households. The production sector is dominated by smallholder seaweed farmers that operate in diverse agroclimatic and social landscapes. Understanding their production and marketing systems is fundamental to both industry development efforts and understanding associated livelihood impacts. This chapter provides an in-depth description of seaweed production, marketing, and livelihoods in two Indonesian villages, drawing on a household survey of 273 seaweed farmers and extensive qualitative research. It extends previous studies through a focus on heterogeneity in production and marketing systems derived from a rich set of quantitative and qualitative data. We show that there are substantial differences in seaweed livelihoods both between and within study locations, which is reflected in different forms of integration into broader seaweed value chains.