Nelson Vadassery1 and Iain Neish2
1Sea6 Energy Pvt Ltd., 1st Floor, C-CAMP, NCBS-TIFR, GKVK Post, Bellary Road, Bangalore, India, 2PT Sea6 Energy Indonesia, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia.
Adaptive phyconomy is the art and science of growing seaweeds in coastal seas where seaweed farmers are at the mercy of “mother nature”. Crop productivity and market dynamics are correlated with oceanographic, meteorological, and socioeconomic phenomena for which the current data base is almost negligible, and farm-based knowledge is mainly in the minds of farmers. All of this is taking place in a world where climate change is a phenomenon that is barely quantified in coastal waters. Seaweed farming must evolve beyond a predominantly adaptive approach. It must evolve toward precision phyconomy as seaweed farming fits into multi-biomass systems for ecosystem services management in coastal ecoscapes that are subject to climate change. We provide a brief wish-list of knowledge, information, tools, and solutions needs that are fundamental to precision phyconomy development. These needs are currently not being met but can be satisfied with due diligence applied to existing and evolving technologies.