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ABSTRACT: Climate change characterized by global warming and frequent occurrence of prolonged drought spells has necessitated the cultivation of multi-purpose crops which are temperature and drought hardy. This paper evaluates the production potential of cactus pear [Opuntia ficus indica (L.) Mill.] as an alternate and low-cost forage crop along with the recent advancements in its cultivation and utilization as food crop for supplementing the food security of rapidly increasing populace. The botanical, ecological and physiological traits enabling cactus pear to survive under harsh agro-climatic conditions have been objectively elaborated. A variety of impediments hampering its wide-scale cultivation and future breeding needs for improving the biomass production and nutritional quality have also been identified. The potential of cactus pear to reduce desertification along with imparting sustainability to modern, commercial and profitable agriculture in dry-lands makes it an exceptional plant. Its annual biomass (stems called cladodes) yield of 40-50 t ha-1 with an appropriate agronomic management may sustain 5-6 adult cows supporting a family of 12-16 people. However, its slow growth, less fruit yield, poor nutritional quality of forage and the fear of cactus pear becoming a noxious weed restricts its popularized cultivation and thus demands a comprehensive genetic improvement and agronomic technology package.

Soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merrill) Anjasmoro variety is one of the superior soybean varieties widely cultivated in West Kalimantan. The growth of soybean can be increased by applying liquid organic fertilizer namely goat biourine. The purpose of this study was to determine the goat biourine quality and the effect of the application of goat biourine on the growth of Anjasmoro variety soybean plants. This study uses a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) consisting of five treatments, namely without biourine/control, 100 mL/L biourine, 200 mL/L biourine, 300 biourine mL/L and  400 mL/L biourine. Each treatment was repeated 5 times to obtain 25 experimental units. The analysis of goat biourine showed the value of C-Organic 2.03%, pH 4.83, N 0.72%, P 0.004% and K 0.234%. The results showed that apply of goat biourine had a significant effect on plant height, number of leaves, shoot wet of weight, shoot dry of weight, number of branches, number of root nodules and the number of effective root nodules, but it had not a significant effect on root wet of weight and root dry of weight.