By: Staff Writer
July 29, 2022
A Barbadian agricultural entrepreneur is making the invasive and destructive sargassum seaweed into big business, turning it into plant fertilizer, using it to develop food for the Caribbean.
Joshua Forte, founder and CEO of Red Diamond, a company in Barbados that is a “biotech social enterprise,” told Caribbean Magazine Plus that his work with processing sargassum allows him to create “various types of organic and biologic agrochemicals, like fertilizers biostimulants crop protection products as well as soil amendments.”
He added that soil amendments go beyond composting and that with regard to the sargassum the main thing that he creates is a biostimulant, “which is a bit different from a fertilizer in that it doesn’t focus on delivering the major nutrients that plants need, but it more focuses on plant growth hormones trace minerals and micronutrients.”
Biostimulants are products that reduce the need for fertilizers and increase plant growth, resistance to water and abiotic stresses. In small concentrations, these substances are efficient, favoring the good performance of the plant’s vital processes, and allowing high yields and good quality products.
Mr Forte added: “Biostimulant is a liquid plant food, which is more or less liquid stimulant for plants. So you could think about it like a supplement for plants that help boost the plant’s natural immune system, improve root growth, allowing plants to take up more nutrients on water, also providing some defense mechanisms for plants against pests and disease from a structural level.”
Red Diamond is going to reintroduce the biostimulant from the sargassum to the market within the month of August and have it ready for export to as “many Caribbean islands as possible.”
The sargassum biostimulants were off the marker for a short while because Red Diamond was in the process of making upgrades to their manufacturing plant and equipment, but “because of the demand” it is back again to the “excitement” of Mr Forte.
The market for sargassum made products is increasing because the “goal” is for everyone to have access to nutrient rich food and seaweed biostimulants can produce that in abundance through the sargassum.
Mr Forte also said: “We focus on creating the various organic biologic solutions, the liquid solutions- our seaweed biostimulant and getting that back onto the market.
“Currently we have our liquid sunshine organic fertilizer, which when we do reintroduce the seaweed biostimulant, the liquid sunshine, we’re going to be working to get that out to the other islands as well. Now that is an organic fertilizer made from an invasive plant species that grows on land and this is more of a heavy fertilizer application.
“What we’re going to be doing overall is just ensuring that everyone can have access to clean nutrient dense foods and giving growers the tools that they need to achieve that seamlessly. So from here as we establish these products, we’re going to be getting our crop protection products on-stream.”
Mr Forte also said: “Internationally with what’s happening around the world in terms of the food shortages in terms of the spike in oil prices, fertilizer prices, food costs overall, and the fact that we need within the Caribbean and across CARICOM, we need to be producing more of what we eat and produce some more of what we eat all the way down to the inputs that are used on the land as well, all towards the goal of clean, nutrient rich food but doing it in a way that is in line with sustainable development, regenerative agriculture, and strengthening our environments against the making them more resilient against the climate disruptions that we’re also facing on top of those economic stresses.”
As the region grapples with food production, Mr Forte is providing the input through turning a tragedy of the sargassum into a triumph. So as long as there is sargassum growing, there will be someone like Mr Forte to make use of it for the betterment of the region.