Development of a rainwater harvesting model for broiler farms

Abstract

The access to water is critical in agricultural and livestock production. In the dry season, the water supply systems are under stress and have placed the region of La Mesa de Los Santos (Santander-Colombia) as susceptible to economic impacts due to water shortages, mainly caused by high demand in growth population, agriculture and the poultry production. Currently, the poultry production suffers from water shortages and has been supplied with liquid in tanker trucks during the dry season, presenting a significant added cost to the farmers. The implementation of a rainwater-harvesting (RWH) system could reduce the water stress on the poultry industrial production of the region. The main objective of this research was to develop a mathematical model to identify the numbers of poultry grown cycles that a rainwater harvesting (RWH) system could potentially feed in an average year of precipitations. The analyses performed here considered daily rainfall data ranged from 2010 to 2018 obtained from the weather stations in La Mesa de Los Santos. The results of this research can be helpful to the entrepreneurs and policymakers by evaluating the importance of water management and the opportunity to take advantage of rainwater as a resource for sustainable poultry production, currently an important alternative to the value chain in the agricultural, livestock and industrial sector of the region.