Abstract
Abstract Hand picking of prickly pear ( Opuntia ficus-indica ) (PP) at the local level is done with a traditional picking tool (TPT) which is usually a reed stick with a three-pointed star tip. The procedure involves two steps: i) detaching the fruits from their cladodes, and ii) removing their thorns, by rubbing them on the ground with a shrub branch. This procedure exposes the picker to glochids (fine thorns) which, when in contact with the skin, cause irritation. The present paper aims: i) to present, firstly, a new metallic picking tool (NPT) as a test to improve the TPT, and ii) to compare, secondly, the efficiency of these two tools. The latter were evaluated through the picking yield (PY) and the loss percentage (LP) in fruit attributable to a handling defect. The results obtained show that the proposed NPT, which can obviously be improved, allows an increase of about 52% in the PY compared to the TPT, with a zero PL (against 9.5% for the TPT). We hope that this communication will be inspiring for both the scientific community and the general public.
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