Cultivation Technology for Commercial Scale Farming of Kappaphycus alvarezii, a Principal Source of κ-carrageenan

A process of cultivating Kappaphycus alvarezii in India.

Kappaphycus alvarezii, a marine red alga that is not occurring naturally in Indian waters, has been introduced by CSIR-CSMCRI following all the quarantine procedures and developed successful cultivation technology using raft method for locations with moderate wave action and monocline method for calm waters.

• A new method of improving a parent plant to introduce improved traits such as fast growth.
• A method of producing large number of micropropagules (seed material) rapidly from desired strains.
• A means of storage of germplasm in viable form, i.e., as somatic embryos, on agar plates.
• An improved method of cultivation of seaweeds which reduces adverse impact of the vagaries of nature such as strong water current and damage to crops by grazers and epiphytes and yet allows the same or better growth rate than what is realised with the parent plant in open waters.
• An improved method of cultivation which provides material of highest purity free from all contaminants detrimental to the quality of final processed end product.