Uma Nath Shukla I think it has tremendous scope in Arid region where livestock based economy existed. This types of fodder will definitely benefiting farmers. Thank you for sharing such question.

Manju Lata Mishra As I felt that particularly in Western Rajasthan (Thar Desert) of India where farmers are totally rely on Livestock, but they did not have fodder during peak summer time. Definitely this could be the better option to fed their animals.

Use of cladodes as a feed can solve the problem of livestock watering, but attention should be paid to their high water content. Ruminants should not consumes large quantities of cladodes, which may lead to diarrhoea. It is therefore recommended to associate a fibrous feedstuff. Also, since cladodes are low in nitrogen and high in energy, it is vital to supplement them with sources rich in nitrogen. Inclusion of nitrogenous supplements (Atriplex nummularia foliage, oil seedmeals, urea) in cactus-containing diets is currently the most widely adopted option and good productivity responses have been observed in ruminants animals.

Unlike other fodder and forage crops which need to be stored as hay or silage, cactus is an evergreen crop and can be used round-the-year. Cactus cladodes can be cut and fed directly to animals. Cut-and-carry is the most commonly used technique for cactus feeding. It prevents wastage and excessive grazing. Cactus being rich in water, plays a crucial role in arid environments as a replacement for drinking water. In dry areas there is a scarcity of water and use of cactus as a feed synergises livestock production in such harsh environments.

@ Devilal..As sole fed to animal may have some problem as u raised in your answer. But it blended with other fodders could be better for animal. Thank u for sharing your views, great

The potential of cactus as a feed in semi-arid areas is underutilized. To further enhance cactus utilization as animal feed, it is imperative to disseminate knowledge on multi-functionality of this crop for dryland areas; develop it as a sustainable crop and need to improve quality so it can be use as sole feed for animal.

Uma Nath Shukla Yes, this is good option for arid region where fodder scarcity is prime concern.

@ Smita Singh Thank u for yor comments. Yes it is good source of fodder in arid region

Cactus is the future! In South Africa it is currently being grown for:

1. Livestock feed

2. The fruit called Prickly Pear can be juiced

3. The Prickly Pear seed oil has exceptional skin rejuvenation properties

NO! NO! NO! Never move plants from one continent to another for rangeland plants! That means you have already destroyed your original native rangeland plants, and instead of fixing those problems, want to add to that mess, an exotic invasive plant that will put the nail in the coffin for your original grassland ecosystem.

Consider, ever square meter you plant an exotic that can introduce and maintain itself without human care, you will be destroying that ecosystem for eternity.

And when you realize your mistake, it will cost tens of billions of whatever currency your country uses, that you can never afford, to fix the mess you made. Accidental exotic plant introduction is one huge mistake, but intentional introductions should NEVER ever, ever be made.

We humans need to learn respect that the care and repair of the original ecosystems must come first, especially the grasslands that have been so abused by our farming and grazing.

And once your start funding the repairs your native grasslands-- like is my profession-- you see how to manage your grazing in the future, so the damages that drove to you want to introduce exotic invasive cactus in desperation will never happen again?... See https://www.ecoseeds.com/greatbasin.html for the images of my replanted desert grassland in 6-8 inches (15-20 cm) of rainfall in the Great Basin desert, shown above.

Here are the various levels:

1.) Grasses gone, bare soil areas, and only shrubs remain.

2.) Grasses present but bare soil between plants and no young grass plants.

3.) Grasses present and no bare soil and young plants present.

4.) Grasses with young plants and no bare soil, and wildflowers present in places.

5.) Grasses with young plants, no bare soil, and wildflowers everywhere.

Picture attached of my project producing that "Condition-5" with the wildflowers.

Craig Carlton Dremann Thank u sir for your attached file. Realy it has good information

Craig Waterman Thank u sir for your valuable comments.

You can see how in only three years, they are converting the southern edge of the Sahara desert, back to grassland-savannah on the Youtube video at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdRDfXFjgZg

Instead of planting exotics like cactus, they replanted native Acacia trees, and in only three years, lots of grass for the animals to eat, where there was just bare sand?

We need to go from reaching for the "easy" introduced exotic plant solutions, to the seeming difficult local native plant solutions, that actually are always the best choice... And once you try it, like my project in Year-5, and the Great Green Wall in Year-3, it is best for all, including the native insects and animals that depend on the native plants, whereas the introduced plants are useless for them. If you listen carefully at the YouTube video, they talk about increasing native diversity.

Craig Carlton Dremann Thank u for sharing valuable information on how to make desert land in greenery. Very good work carried out by you sir,...appreciated it.

If you look at the actual food value of the cacti, it is extremely low, that is why it is has NEVER been intentionally utilized here in the Americas, the home of all of the cacti on the planet.

Instead each country has in their native grasslands dozens of kinds of native legumes that provide the most amount of protein per dry kilogram of any plant on the planet, so focus on increasing the cover of those plants, along with the local native grasses and native trees those legumes need for ecosystem support.

According to the article listed below, India alone has 147 genera, 805 species, 33 subspecies, 155 varieties and 14 forms of legumes. 805 species of legumes are a treasure-trove of material to work with, and in just one mountain range of the Balaghats, there are 123 species.

Why waste time on cacti that is not even utilized for animals where those plants are native, when you have over 800 of the most nutritious fodder plants on the planet, waiting for you to pay attention to them, and do something with them, so you can raise some healthy animals?

Article Checklist of Fabaceae Lindley in Balaghat Ranges of Maharashtra, India

@ Craig Carlton Dremann, yes i agreed with your comments. India habitate place of many legumes crops including orphan legumes. No doubt, legumes have great potential in arid region, but it can only grown in rainy season, so that fodder crisis coukd only observed in summer season, where there is lacking of vegetation severely hinderess livestock feed. I realized your comments. Thanks sir

The rainfall could be year-around, if you replanted the native Pseudomonas host plants... because there is moisture going over your country all of the time, and when the bare soil is covered with native plants, AND you have a source of Pseudomonas bacteria, then everything grow great year around. Read the article in Discover magazine from 2012 at https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/does-rain-come-from-life-in-the-clouds

Also, you could start out by cloud seeding with the Pseudomonas directly... like they use to make artificial snow at ski areas, but replanting those host plants will give you a permanent fix that way. Also study the Pseudomonas host plants that exist in the mountains above Salalah Omam, in an area only 5 by 30 miles, and it rains all year, in only that part of the whole Arabian peninsula, picture attached.

Picture on the left is Oman without the Pseudomonas host plants, picture on the right are the host plants creating rain clouds, rivers, waterfall, etc!

I was doing a study of dew points in India this year... and just by keeping a few cm of vegetation covering the bare ground year-round, would cool the nights enough to have the dew point produce rainfall. You only need to cool the air at night by 1-5 deg. F. to get rainfall going in:

Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bhuj, Diu, Gandhinagar, Jaipur, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Ludhiana, New Delhi, Porbandar, Raijkot, and Udaipur.

See the discussions we are having about Libya and converting the Sahara desert to year round agriculture, just like the dry parts of India could be converted also-

https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_we_can_reach_the_food_security_in_country_90_is_desert

Craig Carlton Dremann Yes sir, thank u for sharing a valuable information with us.