The women setting the course for India’s seaweed farming journey

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Editor's note: At various points along the westward side of the 30-km-long Pamban Island, if you look carefully enough, small bobbing shapes, which a sea-trained eye can make out to be swimmers with snorkels, can be seen. More easily spotted are square-shaped bamboo rafts floating not more than 100 metres from the shore, resembling pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that has come apart. Women can be seen tending to these rafts or pulling them onto the shore. Both these near-shore activities are methods to pick naturally grown seaweed or grow seaweed that is then harvested on shore.  Seaweed is the common name given to countless species of plants and algae that grow in the oceans as well as in rivers and lakes. They vary in size from the microscopic phytoplankton to the giant kelp. The term “seaweed” itself is a misnomer because these so-called “weeds” do not harm the environment; in fact, they are essential for the survival of innumerable marine creatures, both as food and as habitat. They also hold many uses for humans, ranging from being used as food additives, …