Playa del Carmen, Q.R. — A project to turn local seaweed into fertilizer is being promoted in area schools, which, if successful, will expand.
The program is being headed by Elmer Gilberto Coronado Alamilla of Fomento Agropecuario y Pesquero, who says that the pilot program will begin in the next school year and will be an experiment to turn local sargasso into vegetable fertilizer.
The program will be implemented in the Ko’oten Kambal secondary school, and depending on success, will be replicated in other secondary schools who are interested in the program.
Sustainable development experts of the school will be in charge of supervising the process of converting seaweed into fertilizer for plants. He says that the first production of the fertilizer has been very successful and is currently used in tomato planting in a settlement located between Playa del Carmen and Puerto Aventuras.
Coronado Alamilla explained that the sargasso, once removed from the sea, is washed with fresh water and dried in the open air for five days. It is later minced and when mixed with dirt, its organisms contribute to achieving a mixture rich in nutrients.
Willian Noé Sánchez, a teacher at the Ko’oten Kambal secondary school said that the students are interested in technical knowledge and its application. He says they will become involved in the program in the field of production for self-consumption, adding that they will participate in the production of fertilizer for the growth of vegetables such as habanero peppers, radishes and cilantro.
