Enhancing water use efficiency in monoculture of Litopenaeus vannamei: Impacts on pond water quality, waste production, water footprint and production performance

We studied the effect of rearing densities of Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei in three densities with three replicate treatments [T1: 0.4 million post-larvae (PL) ha−1, T2: 0.5 million PL ha−1, T3: 0.6 million PL ha−1] and water cutback approach on rearing environment, water use efficiency, water footprint and production performance. Conditional water exchange was carried out based on water quality parameters. Water quality suitability index was very good (7.5-9.0) up to 13th, 10th and 5th week of culture in T1, T2 and T3, respectively; which was attributed to rearing density, smaller-sized shrimp and low early feed input. Optimum rearing density of 50 PL m-2 (T2) led to total water use of 3.25 × 104  m3. It was seeming as a way to improve shrimp productivity (10.58 t ha−1 120 d−1), consumptive water use index (1.72  m3 kg-1 biomass), total water footprint (1229 m3 t−1 biomass) and net consumptive water productivity (USD 1.28 m-3). L. vannamei culture with low to moderate water exchange as in T2, helped uphold water quality suitable for the shrimp growth, improved water use efficiency (0.58 kg biomass m-3 water), minimized sediment load (45.3 m3 t-1 biomass), effluent outputs (0.63 × 104 m3), pumping cost (USD 30.1 t−1 biomass produced), and ratio of output value to the cost of cultivation (1.97). The findings and advancement in knowledge would offer the basis to augment shrimp rearing efforts and the water management approaches will help in preventing the production of waste and effluent while increasing water use efficiency and production performance.