Commercial production of elite seedlings of kappaphcus alvarezii using novel micropropagation technique

Kappaphycus alvarezii yields multiple products like carrageenan, biostimulant, potassium rich salt and biofilm. Commercial cultivation of K.alvarezii has been initiated along the South East Indian coast two decades ago. Initial cultivation experiments were done with perforated polythene bags, fishnet bags, open culture and finally bamboo raft culture and long line rope culture method. Bamboo raft culture is being adopted at commercial scale along the Southeast Indian coast while long line rope method is more suitable for the condition prevailed in Northwest Indian coast. Seaweed cultivation became very lucrative business for the fisher folk and earning an average of US$ 600 per month. However sudden eruption of ice ice disease in 2013 killed several thousand tonnes of seaweed.   K.alvarezii cultivation has not reached to its fullest capacity even after 10 years, due to lack of seed material.

Therefore, it is highly imperative now to introduce new techniques in K.alvarezii cultivation to produce virulent strains continuously for sustainable commercial cultivation. Tissue culture/Micropropagation technique has produced virulent strains of K.alvarezii The technology involves the following steps 1) Collection of the parent plant 2) Preparation of the explants 3) Tissue (shoot) initiation in the explants 4) Culture of the tissue culture explants in the laboratory. 5) Hardening of the tissue culture plantlets in the Outdoor tanks 6) Acclimatization of the plantlets in the sea and 7) Commercial seedling production and multiplication 8) Supply of tissue culture seedlings to the seaweed farmers.

The most successful achievement of the technique is 250- 300 number of seedlings (each seedling @ 50 g fresh wt) were produced from a single mother plant of 100 g fresh wt. in 120 days. Totally 13,700 seedlings (@50g fresh wt). were produced and supplied to the cultivators covering Ramanathapuram District, Pudukkottai District and Tuticorin District. Tissue cultured seedlings produced by this technique has 20 -30% higher growth as compared to conventional plant. This means farmers earning 20 -30% higher income. We estimated and compared Refined carrageenan from tissue cultured and conventional plant. We observed tissue cultured K.alvarezii   has significantly higher carrageenan yield and quality.