Water footprint of broiler meat production in Sri Lanka: An analysis

Abstract

Water footprint (WF) of a product is an important criterion that reflects its eco friendliness.  An analysis of the WF can be used to identify the feasible strategies to produce a particular product at lowest WF.   The objectives of this paper are to determine the WF of broiler meat production of Sri Lanka, under the current production condition and parameters and, to explore the possible avenues to reduce the WF of broiler meat production. Water footprints of inputs used in the production cycle were collected from secondary databases were used for the calculations.  Assuming that the final live weight of a broiler chicken is 2.2 kg, dressing percentage is 75% and flock mortality is 5%, it was calculated that 636 broiler chicks have to be raised to get one ton of broiler meat weight. If a day old chick weighs 0.043 kg, it was calculated that total weight gain of the flock that produces one ton of broiler meat is 1,306 kg.  Assuming the feed: gain ratio of the flock is 2, the total starter and finisher feed consumptions were calculated to be 871 and 1,741 kg, respectively. The main components of the WF were feed, drinking and servicing water.  The feed water component was the sum of water in feed ingredients consumed plus water required for feed preparation.  To determine the water in feed ingredients consumed, the WFs of each feed ingredient of a typical broiler diet were multiplied by the amount of the respective ingredient consumed by the birds during the growing period. The drinking water requirement was considered as 2.5 x total feed intake.  The servicing water component was the sum of water required for cleaning utensils, the labourers’ water requirement, WF of litter material and unspecified requirements.  Feed water accounted 94% of the WF of broiler meat.  Maize and soybean meal accounted 49 and 41% of the feed water, respectively.  The contribution of servicing water (5.7%) was dominated by the WF of the litter material. It was concluded that WF of broiler meat under Sri Lankan production conditions was as high as 7,546 m3/ton.  Dietary manipulations are identified as the most feasible mean of reducing the WF of the broiler meat production.