Productivity assessment of an intensive whiteleg shrimp Penaeus vannamei farm based on Powersim-simulated growth rates

The main objective of intensive whiteleg shrimp Penaeus vannamei cultivation is to obtain high productivity to meet market needs. One of the efforts to boost production is to provide optimal feeding to increase the shrimp growth rate. This study analyzes the productivity of an intensive shrimp farm using Powersim simulations based on specific growth rates (SGR) and average daily growth (ADG) to determine the resulting production criteria. The cultivation lasted for 90 days by stocking 16 grow-out ponds with post-larvae (PL10) at a density of 80 PL per m2. Shrimp samples were weighed every 10 days after day-30 of culture until harvest. The average productivity obtained from this study was 8.86 t/ha/crop. According to our criteria, this productivity level was low, presumably, due to the low growth rate that may have resulted from low-quality larvae, sublethal nitrite concentrations, low survival rate, and high feed conversion ratio. The SGR-based and ADG-based simulations using Powersim Studio 10 Express confirm the low production, which does not meet the criteria for intensive farming. However, ADG-based simulation shows that the prolonged culture to 126 days results in higher shrimp production and productivity that fall into the lower level of the intensive system. This study also proposes production criteria and productivity ranges for whiteleg shrimp farming.