Economic effects of implementing selected components of best management practices (BMPs) for semi‐intensive shrimp farms in Honduras

Abstract Shrimp farming has grown rapidly in Central America over the last two decades to become one of the leading sources of foreign exchange in countries such as Honduras. The shrimp industry has been accused of creating negative environmental and social externalities. An economic optimization model was used in this analysis to evaluate the effects of five selected Best Management Practices (BMPs) on farm profitability, selection of optimal management strategies, and the corresponding quantities of net nutrient discharge from semi‐intensive shrimp farms in Honduras. Practices evaluated were: 1) reduction of water exchange rates from 10 to 5%; 2) establishment of pre‐determined nutrient discharge limits; 3) use of feed trays to avoid excess feed applications; 4) construction of settling basins for treatment of the last 10% of drainage effluents; and 5) use of mangrove biofilters for effluent treatment. Management practices targeted at improving production efficiency (reductions in water exchange rates and use of feed trays) had the greatest potential to reduce net quantities of nutrients discharged, but also increased farm profits. Settling basins and mangrove biofilters substantially increased fixed costs and were not economically feasible.