June 23, 2017

 

Intensive shrimp farming better for environment, says WWF study

 

 

More intensive shrimp farming yields better environmental and economic results than extensive farming, a new study conducted by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Vietnam and Thailand claims.

 

By producing more shrimp per hectare of land, farmers can increase production to meet growing demand for shrimp without increasing pressure on the region's natural resources, the study says.

 

"Natural resources like land, water, wild fish and energy come with a price tag," said Dr Aaron McNevin, director of aquaculture for WWF's Markets and Food programme, and lead author of the study. "By using them more efficiently, farmers can improve their environmental and economic performance at the same time."

 

The study in Vietnam and Thailand showed that, in most cases, intensive operations used land much more efficiently, yielding at least eight additional tonnes of shrimp on each hectare of land. They also reduced the costs of land use by more than 90% per kilogramme of shrimp.

 

The most intensive farms also made more efficient use of energy, with energy costs 74% to 89% lower than the least intensive operations. However, intensification also has negative implications such as more concentrated wastes in effluent and the potential to stress shrimp to the point that disease outbreaks occur.

 

Feed efficiency

 

Farmers use feed to be able to produce about 3.6 million tonnes of shrimp per year. The study said that if they all could improve feed efficiency by a factor of 0.1, it would save 106,000 hectares of land, 37 billion gallons of water, 468,000 tonnes of wild fish, and 3.6 million gigajoules of energy-enough to power nearly 140,000 American homes for a year.

 

Moreover, the greater efficiency would equate to farm-level savings of up to $110 million in Thailand and Vietnam.

 

The study said intensive shrimp farming, as opposed to extensive farming (which uses land that is primarily located in the coastal zone with high biodiversity) leaves habitat intact as it uses land more efficiently, giving several benefits:

 

"First, it mitigates the impact of climate change, which is driven by the loss of forests, mangroves, and other carbon-rich ecosystems. 

 

"Second, protecting coastal zones provides breeding and nursing grounds for wild fish and other aquatic life.

 

"Third, intact habitat-particularly coastal ecosystems such as mangroves-protects in-land communities from storm surges".