Kelp farming is the cultivation of seaweed in an authorized, specified area. An effort is made to cultivate the largest amount of seaweed possible. Seaweed farming has been developed as an alternative to improve economic conditions and to reduce pressure and over-exploitation on other resources. Seaweed farms are generally located in shallow and constantly warm waters.
This is the story about Lito Mente. Lito Mentehe is 47 years old and he lives in Poblacion 5, in Capul Island. He started planting seaweed in 1977, at that time there were no organisations operating there that focused on a livelihood program.
Cultivating seaweed is his source of income and it's quite enough to sustain his busy needs. Before, the market price of seaweeds was amounting to 3500 pesos a month for 150 kilos of dried seaweeds. To this day he still plants seaweeds, he doesn't think about having a wife. His greatest fear is having a family without enough resources to survive on.
As of now, he's helping his parents every day. He always strives for more, so he can keep on helping them.
Natural calamities, such as hurricanes, are the biggest challenge to cultivating seaweed. They damage cultivated seaweed, and this affects his source of income.
He has never done anything else and he doesn’t want to stop because it’s his only source of income and he loves what he's doing. That was the story of Lito Mente.