Overview:

AgriShare successfully demonstrated a circular blue economy solution by recycling sargassum waste into organic fertilizer and biogas, benefiting small farmers in Jamaica.

The Challenge:

Jamaica's coastlines face the growing threat of sargassum seaweed, harming tourism and posing health risks. Simultaneously, Jamaican farmers struggle with soil degradation and a lack of affordable cold storage, leading to food waste and economic hardship. AgriShare presents an innovative circular economy solution to address both challenges.

The Solution:

AgriShare developed a pilot digester to recycle sargassum into organic fertilizer and biogas, providing valuable resources to small farmers.   

Why this matters:

This innovation not only addresses the sargassum waste problem but also tackles soil degradation and the lack of cold storage, contributing to a more sustainable farming system.   

Main outputs and achievements:

The project successfully implemented a small-scale pilot digester that processed 4 tons of organic waste weekly to produce 25 m3 of biogas and 200 kg of organic fertilizer daily. It supplied organic fertilizer to 20 small farmers in the coastal small farming community of Braco, Trelawny, improving soil management and sustaining agriculture. Additionally, it developed an affordable cold storage unit powered by biogas to benefit the Braco farmers and neighboring small market vendors, reducing crop loss and increasing profit potential for farmers.   

Support the project:

Potential partners could provide funding to scale up the project and implement a network of AgriShare's innovative sargassum digesters to power cold storage units and provide organic fertilizer to benefit small farmers across Jamaica.  Support could also include funding research into new sargassum mixes for fertilizer production, and exploring the use of different organic waste materials in combination with sargassum to optimize fertilizer composition and nutrient content.  

Lessons learned:

The project demonstrated that a 30% sargassum mix with food waste and cow manure can produce a marketable fertilizer product that is high in nitrogen, sodium, calcium, and magnesium with a fairly low metal content. It also highlighted the critical need for affordable cold storage among small farmers in Jamaica.