Challenges and potentialities of the integrated production regime implementation in the Brazilian marine shrimp farming: a systematic review

Abstract

Integrated production (IP) is a relatively new production regime that supports environmental, labor, and management issues through the production process. As the marine shrimp farming in Brazil has been recently impacted by environmental and sanitary issues, IP principles could provide tools to improve the productivity in a systemic method. Our goal was to compare a hypothetical IP shrimp farm with the conventional cultivated marine shrimp production (CP) and identify possible challenges that IP would face if adopted as an alternative production regime for the Brazilian shrimp farming scenario. IP and CP data were obtained through application of PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses) methodology and the comparison was conducted through a strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat (SWOT) analysis and based on concepts derived from the Delphi methodology. The results indicate that the major challenges for IP in Brazil are as follows: (i) the absence of specific technical standards (STS) for the certification of shrimp farms, (ii) the possibility of increasing investment costs for implementation and operation of certified farms, and (iii) non-differentiation in the internal market of certified and non-certified products. Conversely, IP introduces significantly superior forces than CP. The most important of these forces are (i) the adoption of a systemic view of the productive chain, (ii) the traceability of products and processes, (iii) the reduction of barriers to environmental licensing of aquaculture farms, (iv) the reduction of risks and damages caused by diseases, and (v) the optimization in the use of natural resources, inputs, and energy.