Mechanizing the production system in Philippine seaweed farms
THE SEAWEED INDUSTRY in the Philippines is currently experiencing challenges such as the slow and intricate procedure of preparing, deploying, and harvesting of seaweed planted lines. There is also a need to efficiently utilize manpower, including women and schoolchildren, in seedling/planting materials preparations.
To address this, the Palawan State University-Marine Science Laboratory, under the leadership of Professor Floredel D. Galon and through funding from PCAARRD, developed the mechanical seaweed harvester and seaweed planting table with tie-line straw inserter. These are innovations in seaweed farming operation where manpower requirement to plant and harvest the seaweeds to and from the farm sites is laborintensive.
The harvester is driven by a gasoline engine that allows the spooler to rotate. It is also equipped with a pulley and belt to regulate the spooler’s speed. The spooler pulls the seaweed tie-line, which passes through a circular blade that cuts and separates the seaweeds from the tie-line. With a linear velocity of 25 meters per minute, the harvester is 5x more efficient than the traditional practice of harvesting seaweeds from farm sites.
The seaweed planting table with tie-line straw inserter uses a foot-operated pedal. The straw is inserted on the tie-line through the needles and partially pulled up when shafting returns to its original position. The machine can insert 15 straws per minute or an efficiency of 36% faster compared to the traditional practice. The tie-line straw inserter is attached to the table with a spooler underneath that collects the tie-line inserted with straws at speed that can be regulated. Seaweed farmers are expected to benefit from these technologies in terms of increasing farm profitability and reducing risks/hazards to farmers during farming and harvesting, particularly during stormy weather.