Income of Seaweed Farming Households: A Case Study from Lemo of Indonesia

Abstract

Seaweed farming is widely considered to be a profitable source of income and lucrative livelihood for coastal communities in Indonesia. This paper aims to analyze the income of seaweed farming households in the village of Lemo, Poleang Tenggara sub district, Bombana district, SE Sulawesi, Indonesia. This paper also assess perception of farmers and their participation in diversified livelihoods. A formal household survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire covering the patterns of income from seaweed farming, fishing, and other occupations of 64 selected respondents. Results show that all respondents engaged in a combination of seaweed farming and fishing and non-fisheries activities. However, seaweed farming has the highest contribution to household income of all activities. In addition, themajority of seaweed farmer households in Lemo village have incomes below the National Poverty Line due to the low quality of human resources; lack of qualified farming technology, especially qualified seedlings plus lack of access to marketing networks, information and communication. Therefore, some recommendations for improving the seaweed farming methods need to be implemented.