Figure: Ethiopia’s Tigray region has around 360,000 hectares of cactus plantations of which half are managed on farms. The hardy plant can thrive despite degraded soils and hot temperatures. Photos: FAO/Giulio Napolitano, FAO/Filippo Brasesco

Turning a useful food-of-last-resort into a managed and valuable crop

FAO December 1 2017

Cactus plants need not be prickly and can act as precious natural resources, especially in dryland areas where they can make important food-security contributions for people and livestock.

FAO gathered experts on the hardy plant to pool their knowledge in a bid to help farmers and policy makers make more strategic and efficient use of landscapes often dismissed as arid and infertile.

During the recent intense drought in southern Madagascar, cactus proved a crucial supply of food, forage and water for local people and their animals. The same area had once suffered a severe famine as the result of efforts to eradicate the plant, which some saw as a worthless invasive species. It was quickly reintroduced.

While most cacti are inedible, the Opuntia species has much to offer, especially if treated like a crop rather than a weed run wild. Today the agriculturally relevant Opuntia ficus-indica subspecies – whose spines have been bred out but return after stress events – is naturalized in 26 countries beyond its native range. Its hardy persistence makes it both a useful food of last resort and an integral part of sustainable agricultural and livestock systems.

To spread knowledge of how to manage the cactus pear effectively, FAO and ICARDA launched Crop Ecology, Cultivation and Uses of Cactus Pear, a book with updated insights into the plant’s genetic resources, physiological traits, soil preferences and vulnerability to pests. The new book also offers tips on how to exploit the plant’s culinary qualities as has been done for centuries in its native Mexico and is now a well-entrenched gourmet tradition in Sicily.

“Climate change and the increasing risks of droughts are strong reasons to upgrade the humble cactus to the status of an essential crop in many areas,” said Hans Dreyer, director of FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division.

Cactus pear cultivation is slowly catching on, boosted by growing need for resilience in the face of drought, degraded soils and higher temperatures. It has a long tradition in its native Mexico, where yearly per capita consumption of nopalitos – the tasty young pads, known as cladodes – is 6.4 kilograms. Opuntias are grown on small farms and harvested in the wild on more than 3 million hectares, and increasingly grown using drip irrigation techniques on smallholder farms as a primary or supplemental crop. Today, Brazil is home to more than 500,000 hectares of cactus plantations aimed to provide forage. The plant is also commonly grown on farms in North Africa and Ethiopia’s Tigray region has around 360,000 hectares of which half are managed.

See more: http://www.fao.org/fao-stories/article/en/c/1070166/