Financial (And Economic) Performance of Shrimp Farming Classified By Water Management

Abstract

Due to currently shrimp farms are facing with water pollution and disease transfer problems, low water exchange systems have been developed. To understand about thses system economics, 120 sampled farms were randomized from four important shrimp culture provinces in Thailand in 2002. Farms were classified by water management, i.e. open, semi-closed, closed and recycle systems. This present study found that high operating costs are a major constraint of semi-closed systems. A lack of water exchange and deteriorated water quality within the systems has been identified to be a problem of closed systems Large investment cost, limited land availability for setting up water treatment systems and low productivity and net income per total water surface area compared with other systems are some of the drawbacks preventing development of recycle systems. The study also found that the profitable systems were semi-closed and closed systems for small (<1.6 ha) and medium scale (1.6 to < 4.8 ha) farms, while recycle systems were suitable for large scale farms (> 4.8 ha). Based on economic costs (capital + operating costs) and shrimp harvest size price, only semi-closed and closed systems could obtain profit.