The experiment was conducted to determine the effect of integrated postharvest chemical, packaging and storage treatments on weight loss and sugar content of cactus pear fruits. The treatments were factorial combinations of chemical (Control, 0.022 mM Salicylic Acid, and 27 mM CaCl 2 ), two packaging (unpackaged and packaged with polyethylene sheet) and two storage condition (ambient and evaporative cooler (EC)) in completely randomized design with three replications. Temperature and relative humidity of storage environments, weight and decay loss, and reducing and total sugar content of cactus pear fruits were recorded during 21 days of storage. EC significantly maintained parameters of cactus pear fruits tested by reducing mean temperature 2.81°C and increasing relative humidity by 11%. Packaging also reduced weight and decay loss and maintained sugar contents. Similarly, CaCl 2 treatment enabled better retention of weight and sugar content of cactus pear fruits followed by Salicylic acid. Hence, integrated use of CaCl 2 , packaging and EC are recommended to maintain lower weight and decay loss and higher reducing and total sugar contents and to extending shelf life of cactus pear fruits.

Sixteen cultivars (three resistant species and thirteen susceptible cultivars to cochineal insects) were included in the experiment to evaluate their nutritional and chemical compositions and to determine the in vitro digestibility of cladodes of the Opuntia species. Cultivars showed highly significant (p < 0.001) differences in their chemical composition. The cultivars’ content of ash, crude protein (CP), dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD), in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD), acid detergent fiber (ADF), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and Cell (cellulose) varied, with ranges of 8.18–22.75%, 3.19–10.40%, 86.40–91.88%, 77.45–91.82%, 68.25–87.3%, 55.81–78.95%, 14.88–26.15%, 29.66–67.05% and 10.99–19.92%, respectively. The ash content showed a significant highly negative correlation with OM (r = −1.00; p < 0.001), IVDMD (r = −0.603; p < 0.001) and DOMD (r = −0.904; p < 0.001), respectively. The Garao, Aloqa and O. robusta var. X11 cultivars showed the highest similarities, as they are found close to the first branch of the dendrogram. In total, 90% of the variation among the nutritional traits was attributed to the first four PCs, with 55.97% to the first two principal components (PCs). The nutritional composition of the resistant species was greater than or equal to the susceptible ones.