Abstract
Opuntia ficus-indica is a versatile crop that is resilient to drought, making it perfect for semiarid to arid zones. However, the lack of knowledge associated with its benefits and the lack of simple crop growth simulation models to determine its potential development, among others, has prevented its expansion. Transpiration-use efficiency (w) has been used to evaluate crop performance under different water supplies; however, the lack of consistency in w values under different environmental conditions has impeded its use as a transferable parameter. To overcome this problem, w is estimated through the normalized water-use efficiency (kDa) and the vapor pressure deficit (Da) as w = kDa Da-1, where kDa is a crop-dependent parameter. Therefore, the goals of this research were (i) to determine w and kDa in young plants of Opuntia ficus-indica and (ii) to compare the obtained parameters with values from other species. The w and kDa results were 18.57 (g kg-1) and 6.48 (g kPa kg-1), respectively. Here, w was more than two to six times the value for traditional cereals (maize, rice, wheat), while kDa was larger than that of most C3 crops and fell in the range for C4 and CAM crops. This is the first study that explicitly determines kDa for Opuntia ficus-indica; hence, more research should be carried out on its estimation, including under different agroclimatic conditions and in later stages of development. As a first approximation, the parameters obtained here can be used as a simple model to estimate yield projections of Opuntia ficus-indica.
Highlights
Chile is under a serious water availability crisis, especially in semiarid to arid climate areas
The available information is mainly related to water-use efficiency (WUE), which includes evapotranspiration and, in some cases, gross irrigation, making it a poor parameter for transferability among climatically different sites and for comparison with our results
Silva and Acevedo (1995) and Nobel (2003) mentioned that one of the mechanisms that explains the higher w of cactus pear with respect to C3 and C4 plants is related to its crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) metabolism, where the smallest difference in vapor pressure between the plant and the atmosphere during the night coincides with its period of maximum stomatal opening, decreasing its transpiration rate and increasing w
Summary
Chile is under a serious water availability crisis, especially in semiarid to arid climate areas (central-northern zones of the country). Opuntia ficus-indica is a versatile crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) species with diverse uses, such as fresh fruit and biofuel (Sáenz et al, 2006; Bernab & Lamas, 2011). This plant is resilient to drought (Inglese et al, 2017), making it an excellent candidate for semiarid to arid zones. In Chile, according to the last agricultural and forestry census carried out in 2020, the area under cactus pear production was close to 596 ha, which incentivizes its expansion through the development of technical and scientific information available to farmers, especially information that allows them to make more efficient use of their water resources and to determine early indicators of the potential yield of cactus pear under different agroclimatic conditions. Normalization by Da would correct the climatic variations in w, while kDa would remain reasonably constant in different climatic zones (Condon, 1993; Kemanian et al, 2005; Steduto & Albrizio, 2005; Kremer et al, 2008)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
