#STAGES OF FRUIT RIPENING SERIES#

But once some countries realised its importance, they started giving support to its farming and making value-added products. Q : What is its status in other countries?ДЄ : Till recently, jackfruit was an insignificant, scattered or boundary crop the world over. Processing of jackfruit will generate a lot of rural employment and augment the rural economy.

#STAGES OF FRUIT RIPENING SERIES#

Many small processing units have come up in the past three-four years, making a series of jackfruit products. The fruit-raw and ripe-and its seeds can be processed to make a number of products. Offering peeled out ripe jackfruit bulbs in good packing will boost its demand as supermarkets are waiting for someone to take this initiative and supply this regularly. A majority of them havenвЂ™t even tasted ripe jackfruit. For north Indians, jackfruit means only means their favourite вЂњsubziвЂќ. Jackfruit has great potential as a vegetable. The countryвЂ™s first full-fledged processing company exclusively for jackfruit was set up in Kerala only in May this year.ДЄ : There are three mantras-RTC (ready to cook), RTE (ready to eat) and value-addition. In states such as Kerala too, no significant value addition is taking place. Do you know, in the impoverished Garo Hills region of Meghalaya alone, jackfruit worth Rs 434 crore was wasted in 2012. But going by the different reports, the country could be wasting jackfruit worth Rs 2,000 crore. Though it can be used to make pulp, vegetable, papad and many highly sought after products, it is left to rot.ДЄ : Accurate data is not available on the area under jackfruit cultivation or the volume of the fruit produced, let alone the wastage. In the west coast of India, 60 per cent is koozha, and not in much demand. Ripe koozha is not preferred for eating, since it is highly fibrous. There are two varieties-varikka and koozha. A small family cannot finish even half of the fruit in a day. An average fruits weighs 10-15 kilograms. Who would be ready to take home such a fruit, even if it is highly nutritious? Its size is another problem. Those who are not familiar with the fruit will take hours to make it ready for cooking. Very few people have the will and skill to cut and peel the bulbs by properly tackling its gum. The biggest curse of the jackfruit is that itвЂ™s difficult to harvest, cut and peel. About 60-70 per cent of the fruit gets wasted in India.ДЄ: There is no proper supply chain to areas where it can be consumed.ДЄ: So far, nobody has taken jackfruit seriously.ДЄ: There are many reasons. But now itвЂ™s looked down upon as a poor manвЂ™s food in regions it is produced. In fact, you can call it a вЂњkalpavrikshaвЂќ (a mythological, wish-fulfilling tree). It can even replace rice and wheat, the common starch staple, and itвЂ™s far more nutritious than mangoes, oranges and other tropical fruits. Jackfruit used to be a staple food in states such as Kerala during the rainy season when people, especially the poor communities, ran out of rice and vegetables. Its roots and leaves are used in medicine and the timber, which is quite expensive, is used for making furniture and musical instruments. Do you know, every part of the tree is useful? While humans can eat the fruit and seeds, the leaves of jackfruit make good cattle feed. There is immense scope for value addition. The fruit and the nuts are highly nutritious and have a lot of health benefits. It can be cooked as a vegetable when itвЂ™s raw and eaten as it is when itвЂ™s ripe. The crop never fails, even when other crops fail. It needs least attention but yields abundant fruits. International agencies have warned about impending food shortage. These food crops are sensitive to climate changes. Not only media, the general public as well as the policy makers do not seem to realise its health, economic and business potential.ДЄ: There are reports on the yield reduction of rice, wheat, and maize due to rise in temperature. They rarely write on the immense possibilities of the fruit and its importance in the context of food security, climate change and global warming. Jackfruit has not yet received the attention it should have. Q: Why do you write so much on jackfruit?ДЄ: Because nobody else is doing that (laughs).

Stages of fruit ripening