JACKFRUIT "WONDER FRUIT"

‘Taste and Select’ best Jackfruit

2012-01-16T01:40:00.000-08:00

Venkatakrishna Sharma, a Karnataka farmer is different in more ways than one. When everyone is raising rubber plantation in their uncultivated lands, Sharma differs. “I would rather grow jackfruits instead. At least we can eat it”, he says.

In April this year, he conducted a unique ‘home jack festival’ at his house near Vittal in Buntwal taluk. ‘Taste and Select best Jackfruit’. He painstakingly collected about forty jackfruits from his village and neighborhoods. One advantage with Sharma is that he knows how to climb and harvest jackfruits. Moreover, he has a very good knowledge of characters of hundreds of jackfruits of his area!

Judges were selected from among the guests and asked to evaluate the collected jackfruits. The selected jackfruit varieties are then grafted. Sharma has recently raised a one acre jackfruit orchard with carefully selected jack varieties including ones selected in his ‘home jack festival’. This way, his maybe the first customized jackfruit orchard of the state. It houses many of Karnataka’s famous jack varieties like Kachahally jack, Swarna, Sadananda All season jack etc.

“My orchard should be a gene-pool for interested farmers in future”, hopes Venkatakrishna. He has plans to extend the garden further.

‘Home Jack Fest’ has turned into a trend now. Months later, Dr DC Chowta and fellow-farmers hosted one at Meeyapadavu. Ubaru Rajagopala Bhat organized one at the fag end of this jack season. Interestingly, Sharma released grafts of the five jack varieties that were selected in his jack fest.

Sharma himself has named these varieties. Billampadavu Ananya, Kuddupadavu Madhura, Alike Prashanthi, Mudrakshi (Muliya Rudrakshi) and Ubaru Rajarudrakshi are the five selected varieties. “Let more and more farmers be variety conscious and plant only selected grafts”, he keeps telling.

Venkatakrishna Sharma (08255) 205502, 094802 00832

Contributed by Shree Padre, shreepadre@gmail.com

Labeling models –An initiativeof KVK Pathanamthitta for promotion of Jack fruit

2011-07-23T03:54:00.000-07:00

CARD Krishi Vigyan Kendra is in the fore front of jack fruit promotion as we believe that jack fruit which is a by default organic fruit in Kerala has an important role in ensuring food security of our nation. Presently, jackfruit as a whole and especially the soft fruited “Kuzha” variety has a very low market value in Kerala leading to wastage of fruits. The CARD Krishi Vigyan Kendra Home Science division started promotion of value addition of jackfruit and developed processing standards for 28 jack products. The traditional and technical jack products made by the SHG groups fail in the market because of reasons like variation in quality among different product batches, lack of proper packaging and labeling, lack of proper application of marketing strategies etc. Realizing this, CARD-Krishi Vigyan Kendra in 2009 started developing standards for labeling and packaging for Jackfruit and other underexploited fruit products. Based on the developed standards, the KVK Home science division trained rural women on value addition of underexploited fruits. The rural women following the standards reported a 30% increase in the sale volumes of the products. This simple intervention in the presentation of the products boosted the morale of the rural entrepreneur to take up jackfruit value addition as an income generation activity and taking another step towards achieving food security

Text by : Rincy K Abraham, Subject matter Specialist(Hort.

A repository of Jack Recipes

2011-07-22T09:24:00.000-07:00

A grandmother slowly walks upto the dias and keeps a plateful of deserts on the floor of the dias. Organisers pick up that plate and offer the contents to all dignitaries including a minister. Everybody likes the sweet – It was jackfruit peda. Occasion : Recent Jack Festival at Sirsi, Karnataka.

At 75, Indira Ajji (grandmother) is a repository of jackfruit recipes. Jackfruit papad, chips, sambar, kadabu are usual Malenadu recipes during jackfruit season. Indira Ajji knows a range of breakfast items like tellevu (a kind of dosa), roti, vada, bonda, dosa and dinner items like suttevu, priaju, sole kochchalu, undalikalu, (sweets), bajji, chakke paladya, sole paladya, palya made out of jackfruit peel, hadigadde palya, sole hasi.

No one approached her to participate in the Jack Fest. It was her passion that drove her to make special jackfruit pedas for the occasion. Sensing her enthusiasm, organisrs called her to the dias and recognized her with a memento. T was a surprise for the grand old lady who had surprised all the spectators and organizers of the fest in her own humble and novel way.

Recalled she, “when I was in my village Nakshe I used to get ample of jackfruits. But now, living at Sirsi town, I don’t get choice jackfruits for my preparation.”

Photo & Text : Sandhya Hegde Almane

sandhya.almane@gmail.com

Have jackfruit, Bless Us

2011-07-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

Yethadka is a small hamlet in Kasaragod district famous for its traditional check-dams, locally called as kattas.

Sice nearly half a century, in local Sadashiva temple, an unusual ritual is celebrated in karthika masa.That day appa made from jackfruit is offered to the God. Villagers gathered on the occasion hail praises for jackfruit.

This might be a token of respect for the ‘second Kalpavruksha’ of Kerala that is the lead fruit that offers local food security. Of course, offering one’s best to the God is an age old custom.

Contributed by Chandrashekhar Yethadka chandrayethadka@gmail.com

Glimpses of Wayanad Jack Fest

2011-06-16T02:14:00.000-07:00

Wayanad Jack Fest

2011-05-18T23:44:00.000-07:00

4-day Wayanad Jack Fest

May 20^th to 23^rd

Uravu Bamboo village will host its sixth Jackfruit festival from May 20^th to 23^rd at Kalpetta, Wayanad. Uravu was the first organization to start Jack Fests way back in 2006. Now the movement has spread to the whole Kerala state.

Venue of the fest is SKMJ High school; Kalpetta. The festival will have Open Forum, Display and live demos of value added products of jack, competitions to school children etc. Theme of this year’s fest is ‘Food for all.’

In connection with popularizing Jackfruit, Uravu has been giving training for local women in Jackfruit product making including papad, jelly, fruit bar, varatty and a score of other tasty eatables. A good number of these women will bring their products for sale at the festival.

Wayanad is well connected by road from Mysore and Kozhikode.

For details - jackfruitfestival@gmail.com

PP Daniel – 097443 00120

CD Suneesh – 096057 30334

Panruti Jackfruit misses World Record

2011-05-08T10:13:00.000-07:00

An Indian Jumbo jackfruit that could have made world news unfortunately missed it recently.

The jackfruit in question, grown at Panruti, the jackfruit paradise of India in Cuddalore district, however made a record. Do you know how much price it brought for the grower? A neat 1000 Rs!

Grown in farmer Karunakaran’s jackfruit orchard of Melmambattu, it was weighed before selling at Panruti mandi. It was unbelievable 81 kilos!

Guinness world record for biggest jackfruit stands in the name of a Hawaiian farmer. However this weighed only 34.4 Kg. “Your jackfruit is almost the double weight of our record winning one,” hearing the news of this Panruti jackfruit, Ken Love, who reported the Hawaiian Jack for Guinness World Records, reacted. Adds he half jocularly, “If it was here, we could have sold it for 1000 dollars.”

But P. Haridoss, Assistant Director Agriculture, Panruti, himself a farmer is not as excited as Ken. “Such big jackfruit is not unusual in Panruti. In Melmambattu and Maligaipattu villages every year many huge jackfruits are grown. But none keeps it separate, weighs and gives special attention to that”, he says.

Karunakaran’s orchard has three trees that give jumbo fruits. What is the reason behind such huge jackfruits? “There are not one, but many reasons, I think”, analyses Haridoss, “first and foremost is thinning. Then the manuring plus irrigation. The genotype and soil condition are also seem to play a role.”

Take it from me; it is only a matter of time before Panruti hits world headlines through Guinness Book of World Records, thanks to its often growing jumbo jackfruits.

Shree Padre with inputs from P. Haridoss

Photo: P. Haridoss, vijayaharidoss@gmail.com

Sirsi Jack Fest on June 11th & 12th

2011-05-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

Sirsi, district headquarters of Uttara Kannada, an overnight journey from Bangalore would celebrate its fourth Jackfruit festival on June 11th and 12th.

Kadamba Market Souharda Sahakari Niyamitha (KMSSN), a marketing co-operative organization has been organizing this fest with the help of other organization. This year Western Ghats Task Force is giving financial help for the event.

Three local hotels – Nammoora Hotel, Sathkar Hotel and Ganesh Darshana – will join hands in the festival by preparing special recipes at their respective hotels during the two day programme.

All the participants in the inaugural function would be presented with a jackfruit graft that is provided by State Forest Department.

‘Halasina Aduge maadi thanni’ contest requires contestants to prepare jackfruit recipes at their homes and to bring it to the festival along with a written recipe. Best entries will be given awards. In addition those who have done considerable achievement in grafting, jackfruit cultivation and value addition would be honoured.

“This year the focus of value addition is from Jackfruit seeds”, explains Vishweshwara Bhat, CEO of KMSSN.

Twenty five selected jack grafts would be given to selected 25 farmers to raise a ‘Halasu Vana’ (Jackfruit Orchard).

In a preparatory meeting held recently various committees were formed for planning and executing each of the above activities. Regular attractions like jackfruit exhibition, exhibition and sales of jackfruit value added products, ‘All Jackfruit lunch’ etc will continue this year too.

Contact : (08384) 233 163, kadambamarket@gmail.com

National Jackfruit Fest

2011-04-29T20:42:00.000-07:00

National Jackfruit Fest
Kanakakunnu Palace, Thiruvanathapuram
4th to 6th June 2011
Jackfruit – key for Regional Food Security
First National Jack Fest of India

The National Jackfruit Festival with the theme ‘Jackfruit, the key for Regional food security’ is the first such venture inIndia, the country of origin of this wonderful fruit tree. The festival proposes to bring together all who have direct or indirect stake in the promotion and propagation of jackfruits as a nutritious food. The fest would be designed in such a way that all interested come together and hopefully form a strong network. This collective will continue to take up the cause of jack fruit promotion and preservation.
The festival will include National workshop, National skill training on value added Jack Fruit products, cooking competition, exhibition, poster exhibition, study, documentation and publication, quiz competition, show casing jack fruit products, Network formation and planting jack fruit seedlings, publication of souvenir and presented papers, collecting local names of jackfruits, documentation of micro level value addition initiatives, marketing mechanisms, traditional recipes etc,

Proposed Programs
1. National level work shop on “Jack fruit- for local food security” (Three days x 200 persons), 4 – 6 June 2011
2. National Skill Training for trainers on Value added products from Jack fruits( 3-5 days x 100 persons), 4 – 6 / 4-8 June 2011
3. Cooking competition of Jack Fruit products, 5 / 6 June 2011
4. Show casing of value added products from Jack Fruits (Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka,Goa, Maharahtra…Vietnam,Srilanka,Malaysia andThailand) (3 days), 4-6 June 2011
5. Live demo and sale of jack fruit products (3 days), 4 – 6 June 2011
6. Exhibition of various types of Jack Fruits (3 days), 4 – 6 June 2011
7. Poster exhibition of nutrition and health value of jack fruits (3 days) 4 – 6 June 2011
8. Study, Documentation & Publication of IEC materials
9. Quiz competition on Jack Fruits, 5th June 2011
10. Plantationon Various Varieties of Jack Fruit Plants in the office premises and public places in the Thiruvananthapuram city, 5th June 2011
11. Formation of Network, 6th June 2011
12. Social audit & Evaluation, September/October 2011
You are most welcome to participate in this program and your suggestions are most welcome. Kindly let us know the specific areas in which you could make contributions.
We also request you to pass the information to your friends who may be interested to participate in this initiative under intimation to us.

L.Pankajakshan
General Convenor
0471-2269780, 6452511 (M) 9287548234
jackfruitfestkerala@gmail.com

Eat Jackfruit, Waste Nil

2011-04-15T23:16:00.000-07:00

Preparatory Meeting for

‘National Jack Fest 2011’

Jackfruit, the biggest organic fruit is one among our highly neglected food resource. It is paradoxical that we are wasting 60 to 70 per cent of total production.

Jackfruit and its value added products have good demand in India. Unfortunately, till now proper supply chains have not been created.
We are lagging far behind in value addition and proper utilization of jackfruit. Yet, there are hand counts of success stories here and there. No effort has been done to document this.

Despite losing lot of good genetic types, we haven’t put efforts to identify and propagate twice bearing, all season, early bearing and heavily bearing types.
Countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines have succeeded in developing best practices of jackfruit farming as well as value addition.
Of late, farming communities have started to have a second look at Jackfruit. In the last two years, 25 Jack Festivals were held in Kerala and Karnataka.
A wave of new interest is spreading. Identification of good local variety jack trees and propagation has started in some areas.

In this backdrop, it is proposed to conduct a 3-day ‘National Jack Fruit festival’ at Thiruvananthapuram tentatively from May 27^th to 29th 2011. Aim is to provide a national platform for jack-activists of the country.

One day would be devoted for a National Seminar to discuss possibilities, constraints and further roadmap towards promoting the Jackfruit products and to minimize the unfortunate wastage.
The seminar would also hold a window for the achievements in the field of jackfruit in countries like Srilanka, Vietnam, Malaysia etc. Exhibition of value added products, training in VA will be there on the other two days.

In this regard, a preparatory meeting would be conducted on Tuesday, the 26th April 2011 at 2.00 pm at the board room of KERAFED Head Office, Vellayambalam, Opp. Jawahar Balabhavan, Thiruvananthapuram. Dr.K.Pratapan, Mission Director, State Horticulture Mission will chair the meeting.

All the Jackfruit lovers are cordially invited for this meeting.

Santhigram, the organizing voluntary organisation seeks co-operation of all like minded groups, institutions and individuals.

For details:

L Pankajakshan

Director, Santhigram,

Chappath, Kazhuvur.P.O

Pulluvila-695 526

Thiruvananthapuram,

Kerala, India

0471-2269780, 6452511 ; 9287548234

santhigramkerala@gmail.com, pankajsanthigram@gmail.com

www.santhigram.org, http://santhigram.wordpress.com

Jackfruit Sambar for Mass feast

2011-04-06T02:28:00.000-07:00

In Kanakapura taluk adjoining Bangalore, Jackfruit sambar is traditional combination for ‘Ragi Mudde’ (ragi ball that is staple food some of the state’s districts) for the wedding feasts. At one time when marriages were conducted at home by erecting pandals, this was a popular preparation during Jackfruit season.

For the marriage feast, jackfruits are gifted by near and dear ones. Neighbors and relatives take part in the preparation – starting from ‘minimal processing’ to cooking. Mature unripe jackfruits are used for the preparation. Oil is smeared to hands before cutting the jackfruits. This is to escape the nuisance of the sticky latex.

First step is deskinning the jackfruits to get rid off its thorny outer layer. A wooden stump is pierced to the top of the fruit to hold it firmly. Sickle is used to fast-chop off thorny layer.

Inserting wooden stump for holding jackfruit firmly

Once the outer green layer is fully removed, the fruits are kept for a few hours for the latex to ooze out. Later, with the same weapon, sickle, the fruit is chopped into small pieces. The whole jackfruit including the outer skin, flakes and seeds are cut and cooked as it is

Relatives and neighbours join hands in 'minimal processing

Finely chopping the deskinned fruits

The feast conducted on the next day of Shivarathri fasting also invariably had this in the menu. This was another way of cost reduction because most of the inputs were sourced locally without paying in cash.

Now weddings at home by erecting pandals are almost a matter of history. So also, ‘raagi mudde halasu saaru’ combination is slowly fading out.

Text and pix: Ganapathy Bhat Harohally ganapathibhat_hrl@rediffmail.com

‘Kos Mama’ termed it as “Tree of Rice’

2011-03-29T22:30:00.000-07:00

Arthur Vincent Dias (1886 – 1960), was a philanthropist, and an independence activist of Srilanka (then known as Ceylon). A planter by profession, he is better known as ‘Kos Mama’ (Uncle Jack). He earned this name for his jackfruit propagation campaign he pioneered throughout Srilanka.

It was as early as 1918 that Dias started the jackfruit propagation campaign. His aim was to plant a million jackfruit trees. He went from village to village popularizing his strategy for sustained food security.

Whenever he visited someone or someone came to him, that person would invariably receive a jack sapling or jack seeds as a gift. He promoted the jack tree as the ‘bat gasa’ (tree of rice). He brought a Malaysian variety of jackfruit that bore fruit in 18 months and popularised it.

Although his campaign mainly focused on distributing jackfruit seedlings, he also distributed other plants such as papaw, mango, sapodilla, durian and golden apple.

It is no wonder that Arthur V Dias is even today affectionately remembered in Srilanka.

Contributed by Yespee

(Source: Wikipedia, www.koslanda.com)

Unique JF fresh fruit packing

2011-03-23T00:11:00.000-07:00

Desaru Fruit Farm (DFF) is a famous commercial fruit orchard of

Malaysia

(http://www.desaruff.com/) that runs an agri tourism venture. It also sells fresh fruits and fruit products to visitors. In their 100 acre farm, they have 30 to 40 Jackfruit trees.

The way in which DFF offers fresh Jackfruit to buyers is unique. Because lot of families comes there, they make the fresh fruit packs bigger. About 20-25 cleaned fruit lets are kept on the thick rind of the same fruit before covering it with cling film. Buyers like frits offered in its own original nature’s packing!

Such JF packets are priced at RM 6 per Kg. (Ringgit is Malaysian dollar almost equivalent of Rs10). Price for the whole JF here is RM 3 per Kg.

DFF also offers packets containing red and yellow jack fruit lets in the same pack. So, the buyers can have taste of both the types of fruits.

We noticed these smaller cling film packets sold at DFF were extremely tasty. But somehow the whole fruits we brought home from there were just ok. This might be just a coincidence. Or is it a clever marketing strategy?

Pix & Text – Divya Rajesh

Count Jackfruit trees: Karnataka High Court

2011-03-23T00:07:00.000-07:00

The Karnataka High Court directed the Tahsildar of Kolar to inspect the jackfruit groove near Tamaka and enumerate the number of such trees and file a report in two weeks.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice A.S. Bopanna passed the order in public interest litigation (PIL) petition by H.D. Suresh Gowda and two other residents of Kolar.

The petitioners said that they are concerned over the action of the authorities in shifting the College of Horticulture from Kolar to Tamaka. They said that any construction would affect the groove which is home to the world's best jackfruits. Save the jackfruit trees, the residents had pleaded with the High Court. The petitioners said that their main objection is not to the college but to the decision to fell the trees.

( Source : The Hindu, 11^th Feb 2011, http://www.thehindu.com/2011/02/11/stories/2011021156320700.htm)

Kanakakunnu Wonder

2011-03-15T00:01:00.001-07:00

General indication from South Kerala is that Jackfruit yield is low this year.

But this tree from near Kanakakunnu Palace in Thiruvanathapuram Kerala seems to be an exception to that. What a bountiful yield!

Think for a moment about such big jackfruit trees. Very few trees can provide us one to two tonnes of food almost every year!

Photo by : Suneesh CD Chittilapalli

Tonnes of Vegetable go wasted

2011-03-14T23:40:00.000-07:00

February – March is thinning season for Jackfruit in Panruti. (Read my earlier story in this blog on ‘thinning.’)

Dozens of ‘pinju’ (tender or green JF in Tamil) are cut of from each tree. Poor villagers, after taking permission from farmers, collect a head-load of this and sell it in local market. But this will constitute less than 10 per cent of the cut out tender jacks.

Panruti (in Cuddalore district of Tamilnadu) has more than 1000 hectares under jack. A considerable portion of this are monoculture orchards (with JF as pure plantation) ranging from one to twenty acres.

Tender Jackfruit is a very tasty vegetable. Local farmers have never considered these tender jackfruits as an income generating resource. As per a rough estimate, a minimum of 1,000 tonnes of these green jackfruits get unutilized and rotten under the jackfruit trees.

During this time, in cities like Chennai – Chennai is only 180 kilometers away – such tender Jackfruits are in great demand. It sells for Rs 20 a kilo. If only Panruti farmers take a little more efforts, they can earn enough to meet the expenses of fertilizer requirements of these jackfruit trees.

Tender Jackfruit is a very tasty vegetable. Dozens of delicious curries can be made from this by adding chillies or jaggery or spices. Rich in many nutrients, minerals and dry matter, it has good percent of fibers too. It is considered ideal food for diabetic and BP patients. With the diverse variety of curries possible from this, Tender JF can be daily food supplement.

Allowing such a valuable vegetable to rot is really unfortunate. There is a simple, low-cost method of preserving this brine. Even if some local SHG’s can do it with good hygiene and care, it can be sold to jack lovers elsewhere. It can be used as a vegetable during off-season.

We have bright examples of green jackfruit utilization in our neighboring country Srilanka. Pinju is called as Polos in Sinhala language. Polos curry is a very famous Srilankan dish and is available in most of the restaurants there. Not only that, they export ‘ready to use’ Tender Jackfruit curries in bottles and tins to US, Australia and other countries.It needs awareness on utilization & attention for marketing as fresh and preserved.

Text & Photos: P. Haridoss, Asst Director of Agriculture, Panruti, vijayaharidoss@gmail.com

‘Thinning’: Panruti’s Unique‘Population Control’ Technique

2011-02-22T01:34:00.000-08:00

Panruti taluk in Cuddalore district of Tamilnadu has many unique aspects in Jackfruit cultivation. Most outstanding out of these is the presence of pure JF plantations. Monoculture jack orchards here range from one acre to twenty acres.

Thinning of inflorescence is a simple, but important farmer practice probably not practiced elsewhere in the country. Here, almost all farmers follow it.

Jack tree is monoecious. That means both female and male inflorescences are found in the same tree. Active buds of female inflorescence appear mostly on trunks and branches. Emergence of female inflorescences followed by male inflorescences in single peduncle is common.

Male inflorescence (catkin) shows protrusion of anthers on its spike surface. Between 8.30 and 9.30 in the morning, it sheds pollen. After a few days it dries, turns black and falls down.

In female inflorescence (catkin), stigma would be visible by 8 in the morning from fourth day of its emerging out from the sheath. The pollination and fertilizations are completed within 3- 6 days.

Jackfruit, in reality, is a multiple or composite fruit. It is produced from the ripened ovaries of several flowers crowed on the female inflorescence.

What is thinning?

Elsewhere in India all the fertilized female inflorescences are allowed to grow. But Panruti farmers retain only selected ones!

Allowing only one healthy female inflorescence / tender fruit per stalk (peduncle) by cutting off the rest is called as ‘thinning.’ This ‘population control’ has some unwritten norms. Based on the age, size of trunk, and canopy area farmers decide the final number of tender fruits to be permitted to grow. Thumb rule is 15-30 numbers for a 15 year old tree. A sharp knife is used for this ‘family planning’ activity.

Thinning is usually done when the first- opened female fruit attains a month’s growth. It will be half to one kilo in weight by this time. Generally this starts in the middle of February and completes in 3-4 weeks.

Advantages

· Thinning gives uniform shaped quality fruits.

· Assures uniform maturity.

· Number of harvests can be reduced – say in 2-3 harvests, the whole process can be finished.

· Minimizes pest and disease like, fruit borer and fruit rot incidence. This is because the incidence of pest and disease is more in areas where one fruit overlaps the other.

· Balances the size of fruits, number of fruits & health of the tree.

Photo & Text: P. Haridoss, Asst Director of Agriculture, Panruti, vijayaharidoss@gmail.com

GRAMA comes out with new JF products

2011-02-16T21:42:00.000-08:00

GRAMA (Group Rural Agricultural Marketing Association), a self-help group of Kottayam farmers have been successful in producing and marketing more than three dozen products from jackfruit.

Located in Bharananganam near Pala, this group is active since the last three years. Their latest products of the fresh season include JF vadi, different types of JF toffees and jackfruit nut balls.

Jack Fruit Vadi

JF Vadi is a custom-made product for a business nit from Savanthwadi. In Goa- Maharashtra area, Mango vadi, a traditional halwa like product is very famous. The business unit wanted to have similar product from jackfruit.

Jack Fruit Toffee

Apart from Jackfruit toffee, GRAMA is producing toffees from Jack seed powder and coconut and also Jack seed and cocoa powder. This is a fast moving product and is popular with children. One shop in Bharananganam, another shop and a super market in Pala keep selling this. “At present since most of the process is hand-made, it is laborious to produce. But there is very good market. So much so that whatever we produce gets sold immediately. With suitable machineries and better packing, it can be made consistent and attractive”, hopes GRAMA president Joseph Lukose. He says lot of creative modifications is possible in toffee like spicy, jeera etc.

Jack Fruit Nut-ball

Jackfruit nut-ball is an interesting product for the oncoming JF season. This one apart from dehydrated JF has groundnut and coconut as ingredients. “We can add cashew nut or any other nuts or gingelly as per customers liking, but cost factor would vary”, points out Joseph Lukose.

Unlike other value adders, GRAMA produces products that are locally saleable, thus reducing the marketing cost by minimizing transport expenditure. According to Joseph, “One more point we give importance is that any value added product of Jackfruit should have a higher percentage of jackfruit rather than being as a name-same ingredient.” What’s more, GRAMA goes on doing R & D in jackfruit value addition.

Contact: Thomas – 97455 55107

“Jackfruit, another Kalpavruksha”

2011-02-14T01:27:00.000-08:00

“We are fully convinced that Jackfruit is another Kalpavruksha”, exclaimed Suresh Uthaman, secretary, Siddhartha Central School of Kollam, Kerala. He was speaking at the closing ceremony of the School Science Fest, of which Jack Fest was the main attraction. Jack fest was conducted on 15^th and 16^th of January.

It is first time a school has been hosting Jackfruit festival. “A school should have social commitment too. What the society requires, that should be in school curriculum”, opines principal K.Hari.

C.D.Suneesh, K.G. Balan and A.P.Anilkumar of Ruchi Wayanad taught the local housewives, members of Kutumbashree to make different products from Jackfruit. Sip-up was a product that was instant hit with the school children.

“Not that we knew making recipes from Jackfruit. But what we learnt in the training is that no part from jackfruit needs to be thrown. We have made mixture, bajji etc from even the outer rind that is generally fed to cows” Lakskmikutti, a trainee points out.

Local Nedumpana Panchayath has considerable ‘women power’ in the form of 4,650 kutumbashree members. The trainees are hopeful to take up value-addition of jackfruit in an organized way.

As part of the Jack-fest, Shree Padre, Editor of Kannada farm monthly Adike Patrike gave an informative slide-show on ensuring local food security through jackfruit utilization. He also highlighted umpteen varieties of value additions being made in the world over, especially in Vietnam and Malaysia.

Kollam district is blessed with good jackfruit production, out of which 70 per cent is koozha chakka (soft-fleshed type). Lions-share of the jackfruit, including whole lot of koozhachakka goes rotten here.

Pix and text by Adike Patrike

Memories of first Jack Fest

2011-02-14T01:06:00.000-08:00

‘Uravu’ – a Kerala organization from Wayanad district that has been popularizing bamboo and its handicrafts is pioneer in recognizing the latent importance of Jackfruit as well.

In 2006, they conducted Jackfruit festival that is the first such event in not only in south, but in whole of India. Different value added products were made then and there.

One important feature of Uravu Jack fairs that became a regular feature thereafter is participation of the local communities. This year Uravu shifted its 5^th Jack Fair to nearby Kalpetta town on public demand.

In the Jack Fest 2008 Uravu showcased more than 100 value added products of Jack fruit. This eventually found a mention in the Limca Book of World Records.

Contact : uravu.india@gmail.com

Contributed by Adike Patrike;

Photos : Ravishankar Doddamani

Flex-boards lend color to Jack Fest

2011-02-14T00:37:00.000-08:00

Tell-tale pix of Jackfruit value addition and development, portrayed through flex-boards was one of the highlights of recently conducted Jack Fest at Siddhartha CentralSchool, Kollam, Kerala, India.

This very impressive idea can be adopted by future fests to pass over important messages to Viewers.

Pics by Shree Padre

Queen of Jackfruit Recipes: Geethakka

2011-02-08T21:40:00.000-08:00

This Karnataka housewife can make 300 Jackfruit products!

How many recipes can anyone make from world’s biggest fruit – the Jackfruit?

We don’t know. But what we can vouch is that Geetha Narasimha Bhat (46) of Sagar, Karnataka – Geethakka for her closer circle - can make well over – hold your breath – three hundred!

Born in a GSB (Gowda Saraswath Brahmin) family of Hebri near Udupi, she grew up eating jackfruit in different ways. Her mother Sushilabai knew a lot of recipes. GSB, as a community is very fond of Jackfruits.

After her marriage to a farming family of Sagar 22 years ago, Geetha continued this tradition. Though she made many traditional recipes and many more of her creations, she never counted the number of recipes she knew until an interesting incident.

It was about eight years ago. Activists of Krushi Prayoga Parivara, a local NGO had visited her. Amidst talks, those youngsters threw a friendly challenge to Geetha. They wanted to see how many recipes she could do for that day’s lunch.

It was ten in the morning. The plantain leaf on which lunch was served three hours later was full with jack preparations. One youngster exclaimed: “Geethakka, there are 37 items!”

A team from ETV – Kannada visited her and shot her preparing jackfruit recipes for three days continuously. It was second time when she was made to count her recipes – It was 130! The programme that was telecast for two weeks had demonstrated 45 to 50 recipes.

Leading Kannada weekly, Tharanga asked her to write all these. She submitted 220 items – out of which the magazine chose to publish 110.

Thereafter she started writing all her recipes. She has already written 250. If you ask Geethakka which one of her recipes are her favorites, she can’t pinpoint any. “Each one has a different taste”, replies she, “It is only jackfruit that permits you to cook in amazingly diverse ways.”

In Jackfruit season that lasts for four months – March to June – very few days pass without making jackfruit cooking. “If I cut a jackfruit, I make something out of it for breakfast, 2-3 curries to go with lunch and one more snack for the evening coffee”, she points out. Though she doesn’t count, each year she must be making at least hundred different items from jackfruit for her family to eat!

Unfortunately, though they are farmers’ Geethakka doesn’t have a yielding jackfruit tree till now. Every year she plants a few, but monkeys and wild boars destroy it. Now, two plants have grown into trees, but they are yet to yield.

During the season, her brother brings a few jackfruits from Hebri. Neighbors present her with another few. “Still, if I had my own fruits, I would have utilized it more”, she regrets.

Her daughter Shobha, now studying in 1^st year Bcom also knows almost all these recipes. Shobha does some more experimentation of hers. All three children – sons Vinayaka Bhat & Yogesh Bhat and Shobha are fond of jackfruit. Whenever mother plans to cook something, they too join hands by helping.

Geethakka has given demonstration of her cooking in a few Jack Festivals in Sirsi, Thirthahalli etc. There are more invitations. But due to her family commitments, she is not able to travel far. Mamatha Bhat, a Sirsi housewife has learnt to make hundreds of jackfruit products from this recipe queen.

It would have been a great contribution to the society if Geethakka’s Jackfruit recipes are published in all south Indian languages and in English. Unfortunately this idea has not stuck to any publisher or organizations so far!

Contributed by: Espi - yespee@gmail.com

Smt Geetha N Bhat: (08183) 231950 (9 to 10 pm only)

Mandyuru - This JF tree that rests for only 1.5 months!

2011-02-08T07:43:00.000-08:00

If we search intensely, we might chance upon many all season jackfruit varieties in Kerala and Karnataka! One recent indication of this is a rare tree in Karnataka that bears round the year, except for six weeks.

The rare tree belongs to Mandyuru Shankara Bhat, an arecanut farmer of Buntwal taluk. Fruits of this 60 year old tree are very small, of the size of a big coconut. Weighing around two kilos, it is fully filled with about 30 – 35 fruitlets. Flakes are medium firm, medium yellow in colour, but are very sweet and have a very attractive flavor.

Now in February beginning, it has lots of tender jackfruits. Yielding lasts till November. “There is only one hand half months of no yield time for this tree”, says son Ganesh Bhat, “this year the yield is less. Otherwise the stem remains fully covered by fruits from all sides.” He estimates the total annual yield at 2,000 fruits.

The fruit is not only for table purpose. According to this farming family, it is good for making chips, dosa, stir fry etc. Since Bhats have about 50 jackfruit trees, they use the fruits from this tree only rarely. “Neighbors ask and take a few. Yet others in monsoon falls to the stream on the banks of which this tree is located”, points out Ganesh.

Compared to the highly priced vegetables that more often than not contain pesticide residues, jackfruit offers a food resource that can be used as vegetable or in curries or other numerous value added forms. Which other tree offers one to two tonnes of food per annum sans any care or treatment?

All season jackfruit trees would contribute considerably towards local food security. It is high time we identify, document the main features and mass propagate such trees.

Contact: (08255) 205 566

Contributed by Yespee

Clue: Pathanadka Susheela Bhat

Gift Parcel Services for Jackfruit

2011-01-24T22:40:00.000-08:00

There are numerous gift services in India and abroad that send gift parcels on your behalf. Have you ever though that such services might include Jackfruits also in their list?

Yes. This is the reality at least for two companies. The Exotic Fruit Club of US is one such. The Club promises “just-harvested fruits from the world's finest growers delivered by USPS service for guaranteed freshness.” What’s more, the company has “100% money back guarantee, that too on the spot, if the customer isn’t satisfied.”

Exotic Fruit Club charges 99.99 US Dollars for a jackfruit delivery. The Special price is 89.99 $. For details: myfruitcompany@gmail.com

Another firm, Gift Mela arranges to send two Jackfruits anywhere in Bangladesh for 21.39 $. However, this service of theirs seems to be available only in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This firm promises to deliver jackfruits same day in Dhaka. Both these serves have online payment options. For details: customercare@giftmela.com

Well, if some night bus companies can start such a service from Jackfruit growing areas of India to Jack-lovers’ cities like Bangalore, Mumbai etc, there would be takers!

Contributed by Espi - yespee@gmail.com

Fresh Jackfruits to house-boat Tourists

2011-01-23T21:54:00.000-08:00

With proper planning and efforts, we can sell fresh Jackfruits to tourists visiting Kerala, especially those who visit boast houses of Alleppy”, hopes P.Ashok Kumar a businessman of Alleppy.

Ashok is running a successful cane furniture business, Brooklieen Cane Furnitures. During 2010 Onam, he had sponsored a three-day Jack Fest at Alleppy in a different way. It was the first time a private firm sponsoring a jack fest. “We wanted to promote our own fruit that is neglected” recalls he.

According to Ashok, if we have to introduce jackfruit to upper and upper middle classes, we have to adopt certain discipline. “In short, we should be professional”, he adds. He tried to bring this in that in Alleppy jack fest. Cooks and salesmen were given uniform, head covers. The inauguration was marked with a chenda performance, a typical musical feat of Kerala.

Though he aimed high, Ashok couldn’t bring all the refinements and improvisations we wanted to. Yet, the objective started realizing in a small way. “Among the visitors of first day, commoners from Alleppy seashore were more”, he recalls, “Next day people came in bikes and scooters. Third day saw visitors coming in cars.”

Ashok is confident that if some firm takes it seriously, they can sell fresh jackfruits to the house-boat tourists. In Alleppy alone there are 500 house boats. Thousands of tourists from the other parts of India and abroad keep coming here. “Jackfruit entrepreneurs can negotiate with the house-boat owners association for a regular supply of fresh fruits. The fruitlets have to be attractively and hygienically packed and have to be offered in a ‘ready to eat’ form. It would be suffice even if they deliver the packets to the association office”

With the increased interest in jackfruit, jack lovers in south Kerala have recently identified quite a few trees bearing in off season. As such, with some initial efforts, it is possible to build a supply chain from producing areas.

If this is not enough, arrangements can be made to get jackfruits from Panruti, Tamilnadu where it is available for 365 days. Why not a team of Keralian youngsters start this venture in this tourist season?

K. Ashok Kumar - broocklieen@gmail.com

Contributed by Shree Padre

“Jackfruit is vital for Food Security”

2011-01-22T02:57:00.000-08:00

- NHB MD Bijay Kumar

“Jackfruit is very important crop for food security. Farmers growing this crop are in remote disadvantageous area. They need to be benefited.”

This is the opinion of Bijay Kumar, Managing Director of National Horticulture Board (NHB). He was expressing this in an exclusive interview to Panasam Wonders.

Regretted he: “We are not able to exploit its full potential. But as it a good livelihood option for the weaker sections of the society, it’s high time to concentrate efforts for its development.”

According to him, there are three main ways to popularize jackfruit. Using it for vegetable, consumption for table purpose as fresh fruit and value addition are these three possibilities.

Asked whether he subscribes to the opinion that jackfruit is the highest neglected fruit of the country, he says, “No doubt, it is one of the neglected fruit.”

Is it not time to remove the ‘minor fruit’ label under which jackfruit is categorized now? “As it I not bringing considerable income to the grower, it is in that list now. As it gains more and more importance, this label will vanish” he hoped. He cited the instance of Papaya and Jamun fruits that were minor fruits and of late are gaining importance commercially. Bael , despite its good potential, is still a neglected minor fruit, he pointed out.

Vietnam, a country that is in the forefront of jackfruit production, marketing and value addition is keen to import Indian Jackfruits. But despite this, we are not able to meet this demand. Is this not a paradox? “Well, I have not studied this aspect”, he replies, “Many issues like whether export is remunerative for our farmers, the infrastructure development and such other basic factors have to be considered and given thought to.”

According to Bijay Kumar, “All stakeholders of jackfruit production, processing, marketing and research have to come to a common platform and discuss the issues threadbare. All the research findings, local knowledge etc have to be consolidated.” In this view, NHB has already initiated process o have a one- day workshop of stakeholders of Jackfruit in near future.

The issues to be addressed in the workshop are, according to NHB MD, consumer preferences of various jackfruit products, how to transport the fruit from production area to consumption areas, how and in what forms it can be made available so as it becomes consumer friendly, identification and popularization of off-season jackfruit types and strategies for the popularization of jackfruit.

In conclusion, he said: “Fund is not a problem. We can rope in required agencies. Let all of us put our heads together and work towards one goal.”

Interviewed by Shree Padre

JF Gene-pools Development started in Karnataka

2011-01-22T01:47:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the a catching up movement in Karnataka, two KVKs (Krishi Vijnana Kendras) and a District horticulture office have already initiated efforts to develop Jackfruit gene-pools in their campus.

Udupi KVK in Brahmavar and Tumkur KVK in Konehally have both earmarking one acre each for this purpose. Dr B. Dhananjaya and Dr Shivalingaiah , respective Programme Coordinators of these KVKs have started scouting for excellent jackfruit types of their respective districts. Both the gene-pools would have irrigation facilities.Main objective of developing the gene-pool, apart from show-casing the excellent jack varieties is to provide grafts to interested farmers.

“We in Malnad have more jackfruit diversity than in plateau areas. It is necessary to conserve our best varieties of jackfruit types”, says Deputy Director, Horticulture of Sirsi, H.R.Nayak. Apart from developing the gene-pool, they intend to bring out a ‘Jackfruit Directory’ containing details and contact numbers of farmers having best variety of jackfruit trees in Utttara Kannada district.In order to collect information about good jackfruit varieties, a questionnaire is prepared. Assistant directors of horticulture in each taluk would collect information and photo of selected varieties and would feed into their computers. Substantial data collection is already over.

KVK Udupi: (0820) 2563923, kvkudupi@gmail.com

KVK Tumkur: (08134)294771, kvktumkur@gmail.com

HR Nayak: 94489 99234, 94483 21919, ddhuttarakannada@yahoo.com

Contributed by Adike Patrike – adikepatrike@gmail.com

Popularising Off-season Jackfruit cultivation, need of the hour

2011-01-21T03:20:00.000-08:00

In most jackfruit growing areas of Karnataka and Kerala, the peak jackfruit season starts from March – April and ends in June – July.

Based on the season of yield, jackfruit trees can be broadly classified into (1) Normal bearing, (2) Early bearing, (3) Late bearing, (4) Twice bearing and (5) All season types.

Early bearing is one that yields before March and can start anywhere from November. Late bearing is one that would yield fruits till, say August to September. All season types will have jackfruits almost twelve months (baramasi) and would give fruits at least 8 to 9 months. Twice bearing class of trees will bear two times a year – one in normal and another in off-season.

Palur – 1 of TNAU Vegetable Research Station, Palur, Lalbagh Madhura – a very good variety present in Lalbagh, Bangalore and Bairachandra, a red flaked variety originally from Bairapatna, Karnataka are all twice bearing types.

Jack lovers have identified at least half a dozen all season types of trees from different areas. Sadananda Halasu from Doddaballapura is one. Shreevijaya sourced from a Bangalore house and developed by Ankur Nursery, Ripponpete is another. There are few other trees that go on giving fruits for 6 to 8 months!

Panruti in Cuddalore district of Tamilnadu has about 100 hectares of Jackfruit cultivation. Pure jackfruit orchards ranging from one to 20 acre is also there. Panruti offers jackfruits round the year! An estimated 2 to 5 % of the trees there are twice bearing. Hundreds of all season types are also there. Unfortunately, no significant research work of identification and propagation of such important genotypes are taken up there.

A farmers group in Kerala’s Idukki district has done remarkable work in this regard. They have identified good number of early and late bearing types. Recently, Managing Director of National Horticulture Board, Bijay Kumar has suggested farmers to cultivate more and more off-season types of Jackfruit trees.

According to Bhaskaran, Retired Sub-inspector of Police of Kollam, “early bearing types in the district tart bearing in November. A few trees give fruits till August too.” That means in Kollam jackfruits are available for ten months a year. Only two months – September and October – are ‘no jackfruit’ months. Would thorough search bring forth a few trees that bear in these months too?

In Kollam, lion’s share of jackfruits is soft-fleshed type (koozhachakka) and simply gets rotten. “Even fruits that come to bearing in November to January – though its koozha, gets sold for Rs 50 each”, says Krishnan Nair of Nadukunnu Kotra, Kollam.

I have a feeling that as we move in south from north in Kerala State, the absolute ‘no jackfruit’ days go on decreasing. Near the equator, in Indonesia and Malaysia, it is available round the year. What is required is scouting for excellent normal and off season types of jackfruit trees in each district. If we are able to produce jackfruit, say 8 to 10 months, it will be a big leap towards local food security. For farmers, it will open up chances to earn more because off season yield fetches a higher rate.

Horticulture/ Agriculture Department along with farmers groups have to initiate work in identifying and developing district level gene-pools that can produce grafts of trees that give excellent fruits in different seasons.

Pix and Text by Shree Padre, shreepadre@gmail.com

Gumless Jack warrants more studies

2011-01-13T21:56:00.000-08:00

Krishnaraj Giliyal, a farmer of Panaje, Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka is a jackfruit lover. His young Gumless Jack tree started bearing recently.

According to Krishnaraj, one drawback of this variety is, we won’t know when to harvest it.” Last year, a fruit they plucked didn’t ripe even after a week. When cut, it was still much raw.

So, Giliyals made chips from this fruit by frying it with refined oil. “That was a real find”, he describes proudly, “I had never tasted that tasty and crisp jack chips so far. The taste is still lingering in my mouth. Despite, the rainy season, the chips stayed crisp for more than three months.”

Ananthamoorthy Javali is a nurseryman at Ripponpete in Shimoga district of Karnataka. He has been propagating some selected varieties of jackfruit and Appe midi (pickle mango) by grafting.

Javali did a small experiment in last summer. The fruit he selected for this experiment is Gumless variety. The

fruit was cut across its axis. Each day, he took out a ring of about an inch thickness and ate the fruitlets.The fruit was kept in room temperature. Points out Moorthy, “Till the tenth day, the fruit remained nice and crisp too.” On tenth day, it got exhausted. As such this year Javali wants to study the fruit for more days for its keeping quality. “Most of other types of jackfruits”, says he, “become soft and juicy within 3 to 4 days.”

Many housewives point out that both unripe and ripe flake (carpels) of gumless jack is very good for dosa making. High time someone should make more studies about the usage and keeping quality of this gifted jackfruit type. But beware; some fake gumless types are also on sale!

This rare type of Jackfruit was located in early nineties at the homestead of Timothy Menezes at Jeppu Mangalore. Fruit is medium sized. The carpels have no fibre. Gum is almost non-existent when fully ripe. The rind is very thin and fruit is very tasty on the optimum day of ripening. Later Mahalingeshwara Bhat Jalsoor and the late Harischandra Shetty Sompady popularized this jackfruit type. Today it has spread to many places in Kerala and Karnataka.

Gumless jackfruit seems to have all characters required for branding the fruit at both state and national level.

Contacts : Krishnaraj Giliyal - krgiliyal60@gmail.com;

Ananthamoorthy Javali - ankur.685@gmail.com

Contributed by Adike Patrike (adikepatrike@gmail.com)

Save jackfruit trees: PIL plea

2011-01-10T01:16:00.000-08:00

Kolar residents have approached the High Court

A public interest litigation (PIL) petition was filed in the Karnataka High Court by a few residents of Kolar seeking a direction to the State Government and the authorities concerned to ensure that the jackfruit garden in Tamaka adjoining Kolar is not destroyed.

The petitioners alleged that the authorities had decided to fell several rare jackfruit trees to constrict buildings for the Horticulture College, which started functioning in Kolar from this academic year.

The petitioners said they did not have anything against the establishment of the Horticulture College. They, however, said they are against the felling of any jackfruit tree in Tamaka for the purpose of constructing buildings for the college.

As of now, the college is functioning from a rented building in Tamaka, which is on the outskirts of Kolar. The college is affiliated to the Horticulture University at Bagalkot. The college has 30 students on its rolls. It has sought the permission of the Horticulture Department to conduct practical and laboratory classes in gardens in adjoining areas such as the jackfruit grove near Tamaka, the nursery near the Deputy Commissioner's office in Kolar, Hogalagere Garden near Srinivaspur and the garden at Kukkanahalli.

The petitioners said their main objection is to the decision of the authorities to fell the jackfruit trees to make way for buildings. Save the rare jackfruit trees, they urged the court.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice A.S. Bopanna asked the government advocate whether he was ready to argue the case to which the advocate said he needed time to do the same. The Bench adjourned further hearing of the case.

Courtesy : The Hindu ; http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1074343.ece

Goat proofing, the farmers’ way!

2011-01-10T01:06:00.000-08:00

Panruti in Cuddalore district of Tamilnadu is a Jackfruit Paradise. This is the only place in the country where you can see large scale monoculture plantation of Jackfruit from 1 acre to 20 acres.

Apart from border plantation, Panruti has jackfruit orchards too. Fencing the whole plot is difficult. Most local farmers prefers to plant long seedlings as they have an eye for timber. Grafts are seldom preferred.

Protecting the plants is an issue. Some people put circular fences around ach fruit. Protecting the tender jackfruits that come to yield on the lower levels of the trees (like in this photo) is also a problem.

To achieve this, farmers take a bucketful of cow dung slurry and dip the lower portion of tender jackfruit with the slurry. The smell of this excreta keeps cows and goats away from eating it. This safe and sure farmers’ technology is very popular here.

Pic & Text : Shree Padre, shreepadre@gmail.com

Jackfruit flakes in brine

2011-01-10T00:58:00.000-08:00

Preserving unripe Jackfruit flakes in brine is a traditional method in coastal Karnataka. During off-season, that is September to January, this is washed well as used as a vegetable for making curries. In local Tulu language of Dakshina Kannada district, this is called as Uppad Pachchil.

Gowda Saraswat Brahmins, nicknamed as GSB’s are very fond of this product. As such, this is available in lose in some shops in Mangalore and Karkala. Karkala town in Udupi district supplies this product in tons to GSB’s of Mumbai. Undlakalu, a spherical fried product made out of jackfruit flakes in brine is an ethnic product that is very popular.

Now a home industry from Udupi – Shwetha Home industries – of Perdoor near Manipal has introduced unripe Jackfruit flakes in brine in plastic packets. A 500 gram packet (excluding the weight of the salt solution) is priced at Rs 60. “Consumer response is very good. We would make more in the next season”, says Shripathy Aithal, owner of this home industry.

Contributed by Adike Patrike

'Simply organic’

2011-01-05T23:39:00.000-08:00

'Simply organic’ Jack Fair held at Bangalore in 2009

File Photos by Shri ARS Sharma

First Jack Fest of 2011 at Kollam

2011-01-05T23:32:00.000-08:00

Credit of organizing the first Jack Fest of 2011 goes to an educational institution, 60 kilometers away from Kerala capital Thiruvananthapuram. The event will be held at Siddhartha Central School, Kollam on 15^th and 16^th of January.

The two-day Jack Fest will be part of the 3-day ‘Siddharha Science Fest’ organized by Siddhartha Senior Secondary School, Pallimon, Kollam.

On 15^th, “Ruchi Karshaka Koottayma’ of Wayanad headed by Shri C.D.Suneesh will give on the spot demo cum training in making 20 different value added products from Jackfruit. Kudumbasree members and housewives would receive this training. Dr Prathapan, Mission Director, National Horticulture Mission will inaugurate the training g programme.

On 16^th morning at 10 AM, there will be a seminar on Jackfruit development. Smt Rohini Varma, DDM, Nabard, Kollam would be the Guest of Honour. Shri Shree Padre, Editor, Adike Patrike from Karnataka would hold a PowerPoint presentation on ‘Problems and Opportunities for Jackfruit development.’

In the last two seasons, 25 Jack Fests and Fairs were held in Kerala and Karnataka. More and more people and organizations are coming forward to popularize the much neglected Jackfruit.

Contacts for Kollam Jack Fest :

Suresh Uthaman: 94460 12054; sooryavamsam@yahoo.co.in

Early Tender Jack in good demand

2011-01-04T23:51:00.000-08:00

In Bangalore, tender jackfruits have arrived to the market. These photos were taken in Jayanagar 4th Block in first week of January.

The tender jackfruits are cut and sold at a price of Rs 30-40/kg. Seller Ramanna says there is good demand. Not only the people from coastal areas who know the use of tender jackfruit as vegetable, but people from other areas too buy these.

According to Ramanna Kolkotta people like tender jackfruits very much. They prefer slightly grown ones with bigger tender seeds inside. Each of the tender jack seen here would be not lesser than 2 Kgs.

Now, when no vegetable is available below 20 to 25 Rupees a Kg, why can’t we start some serious efforts in our nearby cities to sell tender Jackfruit as vegetable?

Photo & Info : Ganapathy Bhat Harohally

WELCOME THE NEW JACK SEASON 2011

2011-01-04T23:42:00.000-08:00

HEY JACKFRUIT LOVERS

Its again jackfruit time. Jack trees in Kerala started fruiting and fruits in the the earlybearing trees are ready for harvest . Once again we are going to witness the jack fruit trade in other states and see wasting of this wonder fruit in our home steads.

COME ON !!!!!!!!!

Let us all work together to remove the mindblocks regarding this " Wonder Fruit "

Three Super Jack Formulas

2010-10-29T03:42:00.000-07:00

Using the following formulas we can estimate

Weight of bulbs , Weight of rind and Weight of seeds

in a Jack Fruit

without opening it .

Isn't it great?

Try it !

1. We = (0.38Wf - 0.41) + 0.06
2. Ws = (0.10Wf + 0.19) + 0.02
3. Wm = (0.51 Wf +0.26) + 0.04

Where
   Wf is the weight of the whole fruit
   We is the weight of the bulbs
   Ws is the weight of the seeds
   Wm is the weight of the rind

These formulas were presented in the state level workshop on jack fruit "Panasam 09" by Dr N Sudhodhanan , Asst Director , Dept of Animal Husbandry, Palakkad

‘Kadamba’ promotes Jackfruit in big way

2010-08-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

Kadamba Marketing Society of Sirsi, Karnataka, India has been striving hard to popularize jackfruit in Uttara Kannada district. Starting from 2008, so far it has held three Jack Fests in Sirsi. This has inspired farmers and consumers and has shown the possibility of utilizing jackfruits in different ways to improve rural economy.

Jackfruit pappad is very famous in Malnad area. Kadamba has been giving training to women belonging to self-help groups in pappad making. So far it has given more than 15 training in four taluks – Siirsi, Siddapura, Yellapura and Ankola. All the jackfruits made by these women are bought by Kadamba.

Last year, Kadamba sold 1.5 lakh jack pappads. This year jackfruit crop is less. They could get only 60,000 pappads that were sold even before the jackfruit season was over. “After we have exhausted the stock, two customers one with a requirement of 10,000 and another with 25,000 approached us. We couldn’t give them enough”, points out Manager Vishweshwara Bhat. According to him, 2-3 lakh pappads can be easily sold in a year.

Kadamba pays 80 paisa to the women and sells the pappad for one rupee under the brand name ‘Mayura’. Next year, it plans to start a pappad making unit of its own to augment the production. Introduction of driers would also help because jackfruits that grow after the monsoon onset can’t be utlised as drying is not possible.

Starting this year, Kadamba has introduced another activity to facilitate farmers to market their jackfruits. Every Tuesday it conducts ‘Jackfruit market’ in its own premises. It buys the fruits at Rs 2 per Kg of soft-fleshed jackfruit and Rs 3 for firm fleshed type. Keeping one rupee as commission for a Kg, the fruits are sold. “Though the main buyers are chips and pappad makers, for firm-fleshed types, good number of end consumers from the city come to us”, says a Kadamba staffer. Interestingly, both chips and pappad can also be made from soft-fleshed type, locally termed as ambali, which are otherwise wasted. This year total sales have reached nearly 10 tonnes.

“We are not left with any fruit at the end of the day. One value adding unit has promised to buy if and when there are left-overs. In fact, the demand is rising as more and more people come to know about our jackfruit market”, points out Vishweshwara Bhat.

This year, in the Jack Fest, Kadamba served a Jackfruit Lunch where except rice, all other curry items, deserts etc were made of jackfruit. This was very much appreciated by all guests. A team of people, including some professional cooks are now fully trained in this. Impressed by their cooking, the horticulture department invited the team all the way to Tumkur for their Jack Fair. “To popularize jackfruit and its possibilities, if booked well in advance, we can arrange to send this team to other parts of the state”, says Bhat.

Kadamba Marketing Society (08384) 233 163; kadambamarket@gmail.com

Hey -jack fruit in news

2010-08-26T20:24:00.001-07:00

New Jackfruit Variety Released

2010-08-06T02:12:00.000-07:00

University of Agri Sciences (UAS) releases

Jackfruit selection – Swarna

Tree laden with fruits

University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore has recently released a Jackfruit selection by name Swarna.

Swarna is a very good yielder that bears fruits in bunches on trunk, primary branches and also on the secondary branches. The medium sized fruits weigh 6 to 8 Kgs. The fruitlets are golden brown in colour, juicy with a TSS of 25to 26⁰ Brix , thick flakes and rind is very thin( < 1 cm). Arils are very less.

Swarna bulbs

The mother tree of Swarna is located on the backside of the University quarters near its Cauvery Guest House. Horticulture department of UAS is yet to produce grafts of Swarna in large scale, though it has about 10 trees planted in its GKVK premises that are about 15 years of age.

Contact : (080) 233 33053 – Extension 338
Contributed by Adike Patrike

(www.adikepatrike.com)

Panasam’09- State Level Workshop on Jackfruit

2010-07-12T21:42:00.000-07:00

Recommendations of the workshop

The workshop observed that due to impediments in the supply chain management; commercial production and marketing of jackfruit in Kerala is not feasible in the present scenario and identified the following limitations.

1. Prominence of the late bearing types with bearing period coinciding the rainy season of the state (April –July), results in general deterioration of quality of fresh fruits.

2. Harvesting and procurement of the fruits from the numerous homesteads is expensive due to the heavy dependence on skilled tree climbing labourers and due to the scattered nature of the holdings.

3. Absence of organised marketing channels for jackfruit result in poor movement of the produce form the producers end to the consumers end.

4. Lack of organized systems for supply of adequate quantity of the raw material to the processing unit, leading to short supply of raw material, is the main hindrance in starting Jack fruit processing as a commercial enterprise.

The workshop made the following futuristic recommendations for promoting consumption, product diversification and value addition of jack fruit in Kerala.

1. Short statured early bearing types of jack fruit to be identified, multiplied and distributed through KVKs, Agricultural university , government , NGO and private farms utilizing assistance available under programmes like NHM, RKVY, etc.

2. Plantations of desired jack fruit genotypes as seen in Vietnam and also in waste lands as part of waste land development programme need to be promoted.

3. Promote Jack tree nurseries as an enterprise.

4. Human resource development activities in areas of propagation, primary and secondary processing and value addition on an extensive manner need to be done.

5. Viable value addition technologies of jack fruit need to be promoted among small entrepreneurial groups, especially women groups, in areas where the fruit is available in plenty.

6. Location specific, entrepreneur friendly value added products should be promoted and suitable technologies for the preparation of value added products need to be identified from technologies available, which should be primarily based on market study and consumer acceptance.

7. Since only 36% of a jack fruit is used in traditional processing, integrated jack processing, in which all parts of the fruit such as rind, bulb, pulp and seeds is utilized for production of various products and processing units with diversified production facilities should be promoted to minimize the wastage of the raw material and to reduce cost of production.

8. The training on jack fruit processing should be designed in such manner that the trainee is transformed to an entrepreneur. The training institution shall render post training follow up assistance during project preparation , setting up of processing facility , preparation of specified quality products and marketing (parenting and hand holding ) till the unit overcomes the teething troubles.

9. Low cost and efficient machineries need to be developed to do primary and secondary processing of jackfruit. Machinery for drudgery reduction in the removal of bulbs from the fruits and seeds from the bulbs, need to be developed for faster processing of fruits during season, which will enhance the availability of raw material for processing throughout the year.

10. Cost effective equipments, to process and preserve jack fruit as bulbs, flakes or pulp, for small entrepreneurs need to be developed

11. The export potential of jackfruit products need to be evaluated and specific programmes for exporting processed jackfruit products need to be developed.

12. An extensive directory / database of farms ( governmental / nongovernmental) having larger area under jack , jack nurseries, entrepreneurs , manufacturers of processing equipments, Jackfruit markets, traders of jackfruit products , training and technology support institutions, etc shall be prepared and published.

13. Steps to be initiated for the formation of “jack Growers association” as in Karnataka, in locations where jack is grown in abundance need to be taken to link jack growers and to increase the bargaining power of the farmer.

14. Massive awareness programmes on the nutritive value and health benefits of jack fruit consumption should be done, especially among the youth, to increase the consumer awareness.

15. A state level body for jack should be created for coordination of various programs related to jack fruit.

16. State level “jack Mela” to be organized every year to bring jack fruit in better perspective.

17. A web portal exclusively on Jack fruit to be constructed and a net work of individuals and institutions interested in promotion of value added products of jack fruit to be developed.

18. Collect, Document and consolidate ITKs on jack fruit and validate them through research.

19. Since jack is grown organically in the state, action for marketing the fruit as an organic produce of the state should be taken.

20. Jack fruit can be potentially used for production of wine. Production and marketing of jack fruit wine by farmers as a farm produce should be legalized by the creation or amendment of necessary law.

Take-home Jackfruit packets turn instant success

2010-07-09T00:31:00.000-07:00

In whole of our country, lose fresh fruit lets of Jackfruit is only available on road-sides, in unhygienic conditions. It is unfortunate that we haven’t tried to cater clean; well packed fresh fruit lets to middle class and upper middle class customers. It is only in recent past that super markets have started introducing jack fruit lets in cling film packets. But the supply is not consistent.
In 2-day Jackfruit and Kokum Fair held at Sirsi, Karnataka on 12th & 13th June, for the first time, polypropylene ‘Take-home’ packets were introduced. To attract more customers, it was nominally priced at Rs 10. The container itself costs two Rupees. In two days, more than 600 packets were sold. Later demands couldn’t be satisfied as the packets got exhausted. Says Vishweshar Bhat, Manager, Kadamba Marketing co-operative, who have been organizing Jack Fair for third successive year: “In the years to come, we’ll give more attention to take home packets and it will be a regular feature in our Jack Fairs.”

This is just a tip of the ice-burg of the potential demand in the country for quality jack fruitless in take home packets. Branding with a very tasty variety of fruits or fruits of a particular area has further scope to increase the demand for this segment.

Photo-n-Text : Shree Padre, espadre@gmail.com

JACKFRUIT-WONDER FRUIT: ‘Jack Flower’- unique way of opening Jackfruits

2010-07-09T00:26:00.000-07:00

JACKFRUIT-WONDER FRUIT: ‘Jack Flower’- unique way of opening Jackfruits

‘Jack Flower’- unique way of opening Jackfruits

2010-07-08T23:15:00.000-07:00

In India, the motherland of Jackfruit, there is diversity not only in jackfruit varieties, but in ways in which the ripe fruit is opened.
See the photo. This farmer from Tumkur, Karnataka was selling lose fruit lets of their outstanding variety of Jackfruit in recently held Jackfruit workshop at University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India.

See how beautifully he has opened the fruit. In Belgaum, the fresh fruit sellers have a different unique way of opening Jackfruits. Can any jack-lovers expose pix of such uniquely opened jackfruit pix from other areas of India and other countries and kindly post in this blog?

Pix and Text by Shree Padre

Krishi Vigyan Kendra-Pathanamthitta-Kerala- BUILDS-MASTER TRAINERS FOR JACKFRUIT AND ITS PRODUCTS FOR JHARKHAND

2010-06-26T00:55:00.001-07:00

CARD-Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Pathanamthitta organized “Advanced training on Jackfruit production technology with special emphasis to processing and value addition from 14th June to 18th June 2010 in collaboration with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) at Krishi Vigyan Kendra Campus for eight Master trainers from four NGO’s namely People’s Institute for Development and training, Bhatiya Manav Vikas Seva Sasthan, NEEV and Badlao Foundation of Jharkand state. The National training tried to explore hidden potentials of Jack right from the propagation techniques to Marketing of jack products. The training covered topics like propagation techniques, processing and preservation technologies, traditional food products, commercial food products and their packaging and labeling, processed products and quality standards and credit availability and preparation of bankable projects. The Master trainers were also given an exposure to the commercial and export potential of jackfruit through a one day visit to GRAMA in Kottayam district, one of the successful commercial unit in Jackfruit processing in Kerala. Hence the five days training acted as an eye opening experience to the Master trainers of Jharkand regarding various ways in which Jackfruit could be exploited through the principle of “learning by doing and seeing is believing”.

Jack Fruit-The wonder Fruit

2010-06-21T04:28:00.000-07:00

Jack fruit or Panasa scientifically known as Artocarpus heterophylla Lam belongs to the family Moraceae and the fruit, a gigantic syncarp, is the largest fruit of the world. It is an indigenous fruit crop of Kerala probably originated in the Western Ghats. Jack is widely grown as an important tree in Kerala’s homesteads and also as a shade crop in coffee plantations. It is popularly known as poor man’s fruit in the eastern and southern parts if India. The jackfruit is a multi-purpose species providing food, timber, fuel, fodder, medicinal and industrial products. It is a nutritious fruit, rich in vitamins A, B and C, potassium, calcium, iron, proteins and carbohydrates. Due to the high levels of carbohydrates, jackfruit supplements other staple foods in times of scarcity in some regions. It is the national fruit of Bangaladesh where the tree has great socio economic importance.
In Kerala state jackfruit which was regarded as heavenly fruit in the ancient periods is grown in an area of 97536ha with annual production of 348 million nos. and productivity of 3568 nos. Jack is grown in homestead mostly without any management practices. As no fertilizer is applied to the homestead maintained jack, it also has the potential to be identified as one of the promising fruits grown organically in Kerala by default. Although there is large number of indigenous varieties of jack grown in the state, systematic documentation regarding the varieties is yet to be done. Bangladesh produces 1.5 million tons of fruits from 160,000 hectares of land, with about 30% of fruits being produce from jack plantations. In India, the total area under jackfruit cultivation is thought to be approximately 26,000 hectares, of which, an estimated 100,000 trees are grown in back yards and as intercrops amongst other commercial crops in south India. Jackfruit is also grown commercially in Sri Lanka over of an area of about 4,500 hectares, primarily for timber, although the fruit is much appreciated.
Genetic Variability
Jackfruit has innumerable types or forms of fruit characteristics. These types differ widely among themselves on bearing and density of spines on the rind, fruit bearing, size, shape, quality and period of maturity. Being a cross pollinated crop wide variation is observed for all important quantitative characters like fruit size, shape, colour, yield, flowering season, period of maturity etc. There is wide variability in the sweetness, acidity, flavour and taste. The variations observed among clones offer better scope for improvement through clonal selection. Many local varieties like Gulabi, Thamarachakka, Champa etc have originated in this way (Mitra, 1998). Muttom varikka (Sreenivasan, 1970), Thenvarikka, Palodan varikka and Singapore varikka are important varikka varieties. Burliar-1, Paler-1 and Peechiparai-1 are promising single plant selections released by Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (Veera raghava dattam et al, 1996).
Propagation
Commercial cultivation of jackfruit is still at a primitive stage in India, primarily because of the difficulty in procuring elite planting materials. Jack is easily propagated through seeds. The seedlings take 8- 10 years to bear fruits. Due to the highly cross pollinated nature of the crop, vegetative propagation is essential in order to get true to type plants. Vegetative propagation through cutting, layering, budding and grafting has been reported by various workers with varying amount of success. In Kerala inarching is still the most common method of vegetative propagation followed. This method is cumbersome as the seedlings have to be carried to the mother tree from which the grafts are to be produced. Soft wood grafting and patch budding are the two promising vegetative propagation methods in jack.
Uses of jackfruit
The pulp of the young fruit is cooked as a vegetable, pickled or canned. Pulp of ripe fruit is eaten fresh or made into various local delicacies including chutney, jam, jelly, and paste, or preserved as candies by drying or mixing with sugar, honey or syrup. The pulp is also used to flavour ice cream and beverages, made into jackfruit honey, reduced to concentrate or powder, and used for preparing drinks. The seeds can be eaten boiled, roasted or dried and salted as table nuts, or they can be ground to make flour and blended with wheat flour for baking. Young leaves can be used as fodder for cattle and other livestock.
A yellow dye can also be extracted from the wood particles and used to dye cotton. The latex which flows from all parts of the plant when injured is also used as adhesive. The resins within the latex may also have some value in varnishes. The timber is a medium hardwood with desirable characteristics in making furniture, oars, implements and musical instruments and the wood is also used in construction. It is termite proof and fairly resistant to fungal and bacterial decay. The roots of older trees are good materials for carving and picture framing. The timber is exported from Sri Lanka and India to Europe. With its dense crown and leathery broad glabrous leaves, it is an attractive tree. The trees may also serve as shade for coffee and as support for black pepper (Piper nigrum).
Different parts of the jackfruit tree have medicinal properties. The pulp and seeds are used as a tonic, the warmed leaves have healing properties if placed onto wounds, and the latex, mixed with vinegar promotes healing of abscesses, snakebite and glandular swellings. The wood has a sedative effect and its pith is said to cause abortion. The root extract is used as a remedy against skin diseases, asthma, fever and diarrhea. According to Aurveda, jack fruit can redue “Kapha” and “Pitha”. Regular consumption of jack fruit will improve facial skin glow and seeds have an aphrodisiac effect. Being a rich source of Potassium it is an ideal food for patients with hypertension.
Processing, preservation and Value addition of jack fruits
It is estimated that Kerala produces 30 lakh tonnes of jackfruit annually. A major chunk of it is wasted in the absence of scientific processing and preservation.Different types of value-added products can be prepared by processing of jackfruit bulbs, seeds and rind. Value added products like jackfruit halwa, jackfruit finger chips, jackfruit Ready-to-Serve (RTS) beverage, jackfruit candy, jackfruit bar, jackfruit srikhand, jackfruit kulfi, jackfruit bulbs. Jackfruit bulb flour was also utilized in the preparation of pakoda, dairy and bakery products like biscuits, muffins and ice creams. Value added products like Jack seed masala vada, Jack seed flour, fortified jack seed chapathi can be prepared from the Jack fruit seed. Jackfruit rind is very good source of pectin and this can be extracted from the rind. The rind can be used for pickling.
Challenges and future prospects
There are number of factors, limiting the potential exploitation of jackfruit, the major reason being unorganized supply chain management. Unlike in other potential crops absence of strong marketing system is the major hindrance in its commercial exploitation. Although number of indigenous methods are available in post harvest handling including processing and value addition, since these fruits have not been widely cultivated involving scientific management practices but has sizable production, growers by and large neglect it. Cutting and cleaning of the fruit is also cumbersome and this also results in neglect of the fruit.