Evaluation and utilization of nopal (culinary) cactus pear under hot arid ecosystem

Climate change has become one of the biggest challenges for the sustainable crop production. Prolonged droughts and desertification are the major issues faced by Indian hot arid zone where rural poor and smallholders are most heavily affected. Therefore, the crops which can withstand to such conditions like; drought, high temperatures and poor soils need more emphasis. Cactus crops are gaining increasing interest across the globe, in particular cactus pear or prickly pear (Opuntia ficus indica (L) Mill.) because of its unique characteristics which provide resilience to the harsh ecological conditions. Cactus pear can be grown on land where no other crops are able to grow; it can be used to restore degraded land. It is the only crop that can be relied on when everything else fails. Even today cactus pear is treated as underutilized crop in India, though it has multiple utility. Cactus cladode is rich in pectin, mucilage, minerals, polyphenols, nicotiflorin, vitamins, polyunsaturated fatty acids and amino acids. Cactus nopal pulp has numerous compounds (dietary fibre, vitamin C, phenolic compounds) with the potential to provide important benefits like intestinal, cardiovascular, hepatic health, antioxidant activity and cancer prevention. Recently micropropagation technique of spine-less, vegetable type cactus pear (nopal cactus) was standardized by ICAR - Central Institute for Arid Horticulture (ICAR-CIAH), Bikaner and its evaluation was done under field conditions. Further several value added and culinary products such as fruit, squash of fruit, pickle, ready to serve drinks, colour from fruit and cochineal, cladodes for culinary and salad based on fruits and nopales/cladodes were explored and demonstrated to several beneficiaries from nopal at ICAR-CIAH, Bikaner for making this crop more remunerative. Now-a-days, it is parts of kitchen gardens in arid and semi-arid regions due to nutritional and medicinal properties. Cactus is alternative resource to meet the food supply and nutritional health requirements. The field evaluation of this nopal cactus was done with other cactus pear existing germplasm. The cultivation of vegetable type for human consumption is depends on selection of the spineless varieties. The most important species for nopales production is Opuntia ficus indica (L.) Mill. It has been proved from the intensive R&D efforts made at ICAR-CIAH, Bikaner that cactus pear can be cultivated successfully in arid region with enhanced nutrition and income from the different products of nopal cactus pear. Further, round the year production can be taken under low cost green house condition. Under greenhouse, nopales can be harvested regularly at an interval of 15-20 days with an average yield of 1.5 kg tender nopales per plant per year. Thus, the farmer can get regular income from this crop. Evaluation indicated that Rs 150 to 200 per plant per year can be obtained from different fresh products of vegetable nopales, fruits and processed items (such as squash, RTS, pickle, jam, candied products etc.) from a full grown plant after 3-4 years of planting. Thus, a farmer can get an income of Rs 500 to 600 per square metre area under green house condition with an estimated benefit cost ratio of 3:1. Thus, nopal cactus is multipurpose and suitable for human consumption for culinary exploitation; other genotypes either suited for animal feed or use as biofencing