The Fiji government is trying to revive the collapsed seaweed industry as an alternative for copra producers whose crops were destroyed by Cyclone Ami last month.
Radio Fiji says this has been confirmed by the director of fisheries, Malakai Tuiloa.
Mr Tuiloa says the former SVT government had given out four hundred boats and engines to villagers under its scheme to encourage seaweed farming which they still had.
The industry collapsed despite the millions of dollars spent on it because farmers were not happy with the price of 50-cents a kilogramme.
Now the Qarase government wants coastal villagers to take up seaweed once again because it is a short-term crop taking only six weeks from planting to harvesting.
The government has also agreed to susidise the transport of seaweed from the villages.
