Assessment of spineless cactus (Opuntia ficus indica) accessions for growth and yield performance in Western Maharashtra

Introduction

The Cactaceae family comprises approximately 130 genera and 1500 species. Of these, Opuntia and Nopalea are considered the most important genera because of their significant utility to humans. (Khalafalla et al., 2007) [4] . Opuntia ficus-indica is one of the most agronomically important species, valued for its edible fruits and cladodes which serve as a vegetable and an important forage source in arid and semiarid areas during drought. (Scheinvar, 1995;Le Houérou, 2000; Juárez and Passera, 2002) [7, 5, 3] . Globally, cactus crops particularly cactus pear (Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill.) are receiving increasing attention due to their unique traits and strong resilience to 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 (Kamlesh Kumar et al. 2018) Cactus is a long-domesticated crop that has emerged as one of the most suitable crop species for arid and semi-arid climate not only for its better Water use Efficiency (WUE) and Rain Use Efficiency (RUE) but also a source to meet the requirements of food, forage and host of other benefits along with ecological advantages (De Kock, 2001) [1] Consequently, this crop has become an essential component of the agricultural economy, especially in arid and semi-arid regions across the world. Opuntia represents the best choice since it shows great adaptability to various soil conditions; it prevents environmental destruction caused by erosion. Opuntia uses 267 kg of water per kg dry matter produced (De Kock, 2001) [1] . This physiological advantage enables the plant to survive and grow well in hot environments. The dry matter content of Opuntia is less than 15%, indicating its high moisture content. It has low protein content about 4%, low phosphorus and fibre content about 10.0% of the dry matter. However, it is rich in energy, calcium and ash. A study was undertaken to assess the growth and yield performance of fifteen cactus accessions at BAIF, Pune.

Materials and Methods

Cladodes of fifteen spineless cactus accessions were obtained from the Indian Grassland and Forage Research Institute, Jhansi through International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas in January 2020. These cladodes were kept for curing at under room temperature for 10 days to reduce moisture content and then planted in a nursery polybag (9 X 11 inches) consisting of media soil, sand and FYM in proportion of 40:40:20. The protective irrigation was given at the interval of 10 days @ 1 L plant -1 . The rooting and sprouting were noticed at 40-45 days after plantation. The field experiment was conducted at BAIF Development Research Foundation, Urulikanchan Pune, India in sandy loam clay soil having very low level of nutrients. The raised beds of 60 cm width and 30 cm height were prepared for planting the cactus. A basal fertilizer dose of 60:30:30 NPK kg ha -1 and FYM @ 10 t ha -1 was applied and three rooted cladodes of each accession were planted in the field at a spacing of 2 x 1 m. The protective irrigation of 2 L plant -1 at 15 days interval was applied during growth of the plants. Periodical growth observations on plant height, number of cladodes, cladode length, width and thickness were recorded. The plant biomass yield was recorded at 12, 24 and 36 months from the date of plantation in the field. The collected data was statistically analysed and tabulated.

Results and Discussion

Growth performance of various cactus accessions

The data on parameters are depicted in table 1. The significant differences in plant height were observed among the accessions and maximum plant height of 96. 75 [9] reported highest primary and secondary cladode width (23.33 cm) in Yellow San Cono at the age of 72 months of plantation. The cladode thickness of 1.90 cm was observed in accession White San Cono 14 at 12 months age, whereas 1.91 cm and 2.05 cm cladode thickness was recorded in accession Yellow San Cono at 24 and 36 months.

Performance of various accessions for biomass yield

The biomass yield data summarized in Table 1 differed with the type of accession at 12, 24 and 36 months from the planting. The highest biomass yield of 3.72, 19.57 and 26.05 kg plant -1 was recorded in accession Yellow San Cono followed by accession Trunzara Red Bronte (3.69, 13.16 and 19.35 kg plant -1 at 12, 24 and 36 months after planting respectively. Sunil Kumar et al (2022) [9] observed the mean yield in the range of 15.3 to 48 kg plant -1 year -1 and the highest was in Yellow San Cono (48 kg plant -1 year -1 ) at six years after plantation and also observed a positive correlation between above ground traits and plant biomass. Biomass yield of 13.12 and 18.80 kg plant -1 was recorded in accession Seedless Rocca Palumba at 24 and 36 months after plantation. Shamsudheen et al. (2017) reported biomass yield of 0.17 to 3.48 kg plant -1 after one year of plant growth.

Nutritional evaluation of various accessions

The nutritional evaluation data is presented in Table 2. The data indicated range of dry matter content (6.56 to 14.44%), crude protein (5.36 to 8.44%), Crude fibre (9.06 to 17.61 percent), Ash (12.34 to 24.54 percent), NDF (41.35 to 47.23%), ADF (30.14 to 34.19%) and Silica (0.13 to 0.61%). Sunil Kumar et al (2022) [9] reported Dry matter, crude protein, NDF and ADF in the range of 2.9 to 6.9%, 9.0-13.8%, 31. 3

Conclusion

It could be concluded from the results of the study that among the fifteen cactus accessions, Yellow San Cono recorded better growth performance, biomass yield and protein content followed by accession Trunzara Red Bronte and Seedless Rocca Palumba. The better performing accessions can be promoted for cultivation under Maharashtra conditions as a potential source of green fodder for livestock as well as for other multiple uses.

Acknowledgement

AcknowledgementThe authors gratefully acknowledge the support of Dr. Sunil Kumar Tiwari, IGFRI-Jhansi and Dr. Shiv Kumar Agrawal, ICARDA-Amlaha for providing the cactus accessions for evaluation at BAIF, Central Research Station, Urulikanchan, Pune, India.

References

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