36 December 2011 areas in Tanzania. When production peaked, the number of male farmers was similar to that of women in 2003, only to drop the following year when seaweed production declined. Some authors have described women farmers as being “more patient” than men. However, one year later, the number of men farmers increased and surpassed that of women. This may indicate that men tried to go back to fishing, which is the main occupation of the Songosongo people, but found they could not catch enough fish to sustain their lives. Whether this was an effect of decreasing fish catches, lack of proper fishing gear or money to purchase the gear has yet to be determined. Fouling. Environmental changes have led to fouling on farmed seaweed (Figure 3). While in some cases fouling is seasonal, increased pollution or a rise in temperature may favor blooms of fouling organisms, such as the green alga Cladophora sp. In some areas the seaweed in entire shallow lagoons has been covered by fouling organisms. Continuous Shifting of Cultivation Sites It has been observed in Zanzibar that whereas cottonii was cultivated in almost every village when seaweed farming started, the trend has been that crops are failing from the north toward the south of Zanzibar island. For example in 2005, cottonii and K. striatum, an alternative variety of cottonii, were farmed in the village of Uroa on the east coast of the island and Jambiani on the southeast coast. By 2008, none of either variety was farmed in Jambiani. In Uroa only one part of the village still farmed cottonii and farming was concentrated on one site, whereas at another site where a study by Msuya and Kyewalyanga (2006) was conducted, the seaweed could no longer be grown. The cottonii farm shown in Figure 4 was thriving well at the time of the study, but not now. Spinosum is now cultivated on the farm instead of cottonii (Msuya and Kyewalyanga 2010). In two other villages located north of Jambiani where cottonii was thriving well during the 1990s, the seaweed has completely failed and the farmers have resorted to farming spinosum. Currently, on the east coast of Zanzibar, except for the small site in Uroa, cottonii is farmed only in the far south in the village of Makunduchi (Figure 1). In Bweleo on the southwest coast of Zanzibar, K. striatum was introduced and farmed for about five years but failed. By 2009 there was no K. striatum being farmed; the villagers are now farming spinosum. Effect of Cottonii Die-off on Farmers’ Livelihoods Changes in environmental conditions caused die-offs of cottonii, which meant there was less product to sell. Coupled with this is the lower price of spinosum. Thus, those farmers who cannot farm cottonii either have no seaweed to sell or get less money by growing and selling spinosum. During the mid-1990s, studies showed that seaweed farmers were able to buy more clothing after they started farming seaweed than before. Msuya (2006) reported that women farmers purchased more pairs of khanga, a colorful cloth used by East African women to wrap over their dresses (Figure 5). The author reported that whereas the women in Zanzibar owned less than five such pairs before starting seaweed farming, they were able to own more than 30 pairs after. With the current situation of seaweed die-offs, women do not own as many pairs as they used to; some only own 15 pairs now. This, coupled with increasing inflation, causes the value of money from seaweed farming to decline over time. Throughout Tanzania, farmers feel that the price of seaweed does not match the amount of work that needs to be invested its production. The minimum price farmers would like to see for spinosum is US$0.2 to 0.3/kg of dry seaweed. Some farmers also state that while the prices of day-to-day items have drastically increased while the price of seaweed has barely gone up. That is not the case with other commodities. For example, in 1986, the price of seaweed was US$0.04/kg (using the current exchange rate) and that of rice was US$0.06/kg. Currently, the price of one kg of rice is US$1.0, while that of seaweed is US$0.13. Men farmers explain that they farm seaweed only when they are in need of some quick cash, such as in Zanzibar, but the price does not match the labor they put in. In Tanga on the mainland, one young man stopped Fig. 3. Seaweed farms and the intertidal area covered by the fouling Cladophora in Songosongo Island, Tanzania.
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