A perfect anti-desertification plant : the spineless prickly pear (Willem Van Cotthem)

Long-term drought is not only affecting the drylands’ ecosystems, the natural vegetation and fauna, it is also limiting the farming and gardening potentials of the rural people.  Therefore, many smallholder farmers in the drylands are looking for a possible introduction of new crops to enhance their annual income.

One of the most interesting “anti-desertification” plant species is a variety of a cactus : the well-known prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica).

This variety (Opuntia ficus-indica var. inermis) has no big spines, although small prickly, hairlike “glochids” can be present.  These glochids can be eliminated by simply brushing the paddles. The spineless variety can be found in almost all the drylands where the prickly pear occurs. I found this variety in Arizona and New Mexico, Pakistan and India, Algeria and Morocco.  In Mexico, enormous plantations of “nopales” produce thousands of tons of edible paddles and reddish fruits.

In June 2000, visiting the Northeastern Province of Brazil, I discovered that numerous large plantations of the spineless prickly pear existed in this dry region.  The plant was grown because the cactus paddles, after drying in the sun, can easily be transformed in fodder meal for the livestock.  Like in Mexico, the green paddles (nopales) are eaten as a vegetable or in soup.  The fruits are known as sweet juicy “prickly pears” (French : “Figues de Barbarie“.

The spineless prickly pear plants can also be used in living hedges and as living bunds to limit erosion on slopes (green terracing), instead of e.g. the vetiver grass.

As this plant is propagated by simply planting the easy-rooting paddles, large-scale production can be achieved almost without any investment.

This “anti-desertification” cactus merits to be introduced at the largest scale to improve the standards of life of smallholder farmers all over the world.  What is possible in Mexico and Brazil should also be possible for all the smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia.  With a little help of their friends ?

Here are some photos of a plantation in Brazil :

2000-06 - N.E. Brazil : Smallholder farmer inspecting his Opuntia plantation (Photo WVC)

2000-06 - N.E. Brazil : Individual paddles are planted at a distance of 5 feet (1,5 meter) on the contour lines (Photo WVC)

2000-06 - N.E. Brazil : Each individual paddle is rooting quickly with a minimum of water and new shoots (paddles) are formed. Some of them are used as cuttings for multiplication. Thus the size of a plantation is continuously growing (Photo WVC)

2000-06 - N.E. Brazil : Each paddle forms a number of new paddles, which can be used for vegetative multiplication. The fleshy "needles" originally formed at the surface of young paddles will soon be dropped. (Photo WVC)

2000-06 - N.E. Brazil : A line of individual paddles with their new shoots (Photo WVC)

2000-06 - N.E. Brazil : Buds on newly planted paddles develop very quickly into young paddles (Photo WVC)

2000-06 - N.E. Brazil : Soon after plantation the individual cactus plants are developing into magnificent bushes (Photo WVC)

2000-06 - N.E. Brazil : This young cactus formed alreday a reddish fruit, the pear (Photo WVC)

2000-06 - N.E. Brazil : With a minimum of efforts and water a maximum of biomass is produced (Photo WVC)

2000-06 - N.E. Brazil : This cactus produces food and fodder in a very easy way. It is one of the best "anti-desertification plants". (Photo WVC)