Developing Seaweed Farm as a Service (SFaaS)

Developing Seaweed Farm as a Service (SFaaS) – Providing seaweed farmers access to the latest farming technology and high-margin markets through a Seaweed Farm as a Service (SFaaS) model  

Project Lead: Mawimbi Ocean Innovations
Supporting Partners: AFO, Lamu Environment Foundation, Faza Community and Beach Management Unit (BMU), Pwani University, KMFRI, Cargill, OceanBalance, The Seaweed Company
Support: Received mentoring and training from the Ocean Resilience Innovation Challenge (ORIC) which is financially supported by the Swiss Re Foundation, the UK’s Blue Planet Fund, and the United States Department of State. 
Location: Kenya, Tanzania

Summary 

Mawimbi Ocean Innovations aims to provide access to seaweed farming, best practices and rent farming equipment and supplies under a Seaweed Farm as a Service (SfaaS) model, which offers maintenance and repair services, and provides training to seaweed farmers for a fixed period. Mawimbi will guarantee the purchase of the seaweed produced, which creates a reliable source of income for the farmers, most of whom are women and young people in East African coastal communities.

Challenge 

Shallow seaweed farming (0.5 – 1m depth) is a widespread practice in East Africa, but it comes with challenges such as low yields, susceptibility to diseases, and land use conflicts[1] . Although farming in deeper waters or offshore can lead to better seaweed yields, it requires technical inputs, maintenance and is often too capital intensive for many coastal farmers to manage.

[1] Msuya, F.E., Bolton, J., Pascal, F. et al. Seaweed farming in Africa: current status and future potential. J Appl Phycol 34, 985–1005 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-021-02676-w

Solution

Seaweed cultivation has the potential to build resilience in climate vulnerable coastal communities by improving livelihoods, capturing CO2, reducing ocean acidification, and becoming a source of revenue. In order to overcome financial barriers and tap into this market, Mawimbi Ocean Innovations is offering access to global expertise and farming best practices, farming equipment, training, maintenance, and repairs as a service to seaweed farmers. This offer is called “Seaweed Farm-as-a-Service”. Later, Mawimbi buys the seaweed produce from the farmers with a guaranteed minimum market-based purchase price. Additionally, farmers have the opportunity to earn more revenue through a bonus based on quality and quantity of the harvest. Later on, Mawimbi will additionally offer a “Rent to own” service and provide cash advances for harvest in order for farmers to acquire their own farms.

Scalability and Next Steps

Under the ORIC23 mentorship process, Mawimbi Ocean Innovations is currently transitioning from the conceptual phase to a first phase involving two pilots. These will take place in one community in Lamu, Kenya, and one community in Tanga, Tanzania in partnership with Aqua Farms Organisation (a previous ORIC winner) to scale from a pilot farm to multiple operating farms and deliver first harvest to buyers. Other outcomes will be a better understanding of the different community needs to identify a community partnership model and build their business model. Later on, Mawimbi aims to grow its network and test the product and market fit by providing “Seaweed Farm-as-a-service” to other groups across Kenya and Tanzania.

“At the moment with climate change and rising water temperatures, current seaweed farms are failing. So, we need to push them deeper into the temperate water that costs money and requires technical know-how. Boats, anchors, access to knowledge, all things that the local communities don’t have. It becomes a finance as well as knowledge gap that needs to be solved.” – Fiona Wanjiku Moejes, PhD, Founder of Mawimbi Ocean Innovations