DA readies P36 million roadmap for ‘rimas’

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agriculture (DA) is putting up nurseries for nutrient-rich starchy breadfruit or ‘rimas’ under a P36 million roadmap.

A tasty rimas-flavored ice cream will be released to the market in Masbate in August.   

Breadfruit may not be so popular in the Philippines. But it shows high potential to become a rich source of nutrients for many Filipinos especially in poverty-stricken regions, as an ingredient for pharmaceutical products, and as a raw material for industrial products.   

There are already available export markets for canned breadfruit. These are in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.  

The DA’s Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) is funding the development of breadfruit, interchangeably used with rimas, for food and other products.

“Rimas is a neglected crop. We’re working on a roadmap because it can be a major crop for the Philippines,” said BAR assistant director Teodoro S. Solsoloy.  

Food security and nutritional security has  prompted government to pursue its research and development.        

“Breadfruit has a high starch content which explains why it is a staple of some people in (the) Bicol Region and is their source of energy.  We’re also exploring other applications because research show it can have multiple uses,” said BAR director Nicomedes P. Eleazar.   

The DA, under its High Value Crops Development Program, is funding the roadmap.  

The roadmap components are identification in 16 regions of planting materials for sustainable production, P16 million; enhancing farmers’ capability to propagate breadfruit, P5 million; post harvest technologies, P7.5 million; and establishment of 37 nurseries in regions, P7.4 million.

Ice cream

While a roadmap is being drawn up, a breadfruit product, the rimas ice cream, is set to be released to the Masbate market in the third quarter of this year.    

“We thought at once that rimas is a good flavor for ice cream because of its fine texture. It has good consistency with milk. It also looks very nice because of its pure whiteness just like that of guyabano,“ said DA-Bicol Integrated Agricultural Research Center (BIARC) manager Luz R. Marcelino.

BIARC’s food technology experts are further refining the taste, although many visitors during the BAR Techno Forum in August last year already showed delight for the ice cream product.  

“We’re trying to improve on coagulation (ice cream thickening) and maybe reduce sweetness in our formulation,” Marcelino said.  

The rimas ice cream has several variants – rimas with sweet potato, rimas with cheese, and rimas with langka. There is another unique blend – that with siling labuyo or the hot spicy chili.   

But all the ice cream flavors  have rimas as the major flavor taking up 80 percent of the mixture.

Marketing

The project, rimas Biodiversity Research, Conservation, and Propagation in Bicol (RBR-CPB), was funded by BAR with an initial P1 million.    

BIARC will tap cooperatives and private enterprises to market the ice cream. One potential enterprise is the La Huerta farm, a culinary-oriented business engaged in herbs and spices concoction.   

BIARC is also open to giving the technology to cooperatives.   

For the packaging, BIARC is seeking an assistance from the Department of Science and Technology.  Packaging cost is around P200,000  to make the icre cream product attractive.      

“We have many products in the pipeline for rimas, but the problem is the availability of funds,” she said. 

BIARC initially rented the ice cream-making machine, but it e needs to purchase the equipment. The machine costs between P50,000 to P100,000.  

The DOST had a previous project on rimas which determined the comparability of breadfruit flour with all-purpose flour. Rimas was found to have greater solubility, higher water absorption, greater tendency for gelation and emulsification, and has general acceptability.   

Government is compelled to develop processing and value adding techniques for breadfruit if the fruit has to play a role in enhancing the country’s food security. Fruits should be processed as these are perishable after one to three days after harvest. 

1,200 hectares

Rimas is planted on an expansive 1,200 hectares in the Bicol Region. But it is grown more as a backyard tree rather than a plantation-type crop grown intensively and productively in farms.   

BIARC is exploring tissue culture for mass propagation of rimas seedlings. Rimas plants can also be propagated through runners.    

The Bicol research center is also developing breadfruit for chips, cookies, flour-based foods, candy, and as flavoring for leche flan. It plans to sell these products in supermarkets.     

“We also want to come up with instant noodles made from rimas. Definitely, it will have an advantage over what we have in the market because it is more nutritious,” said Marcelino.

Nutrient content

Like other staple crops, breadfruit is carbohydrate-rich. It has low levels of protein and fat and a moderate glycemic index.

Nutrition-wise, the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) describes the breadfruit as an excellent dietary staple and compares favorably with other starchy staple crops commonly eaten in the tropics, such as taro, plantain, cassava, sweet potato and white rice.

Breadfruit is a good source of dietary fiber, potassium, calcium, and magnesium with small amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and iron, according to the NTBG.

Breadfruit has varieties that contain small amounts of folic acid.   

“Yellow-fleshed varieties can be a good source of provitamin A carotenoids. The seeds are edible and can be boiled, roasted, or ground into meal. They resemble chestnuts in flavor and texture. They are a good source of protein and minerals,”  the NTBG added.

Vitamins, minerals

It is known to have high amounts of dietary fiber, potassium, and is a good source of vitamin B3, C, iron, and thiamine.  It contains favorable amount of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. 

Its leaves can be used for tea believed to reduce blood pressure and control diabetes.

The Philippine Medicinal Plants report indicated it has papayotin, enzyme, and artocarpin, and its bark is used for wound healing.  A bark decoction is a cure in dysentery.     

Its leaves are used to relieve pain in the Carribean and the leaf decoction is used for hypertension in Jamaican folk medicine.  

A phytochemical study further showed that breadfruit, scientifically called Artocarpus altilis, has a high degree of purity, and its starch can be turned into products that need long heating process. 

“Its excellent digestibility might be advantageous for medical and food use.  Percent recoveries of amino acid, fatty acid, and carbohydrates content showed 72.5 percent, 68.2 percent, and 81.4 percent,” said Stuartxchange.   

A study also showed cytoprotective components – Beta sitosterol (known to block multiplication of leukemia cells). It has six flavonoids that could have many medicinal applications.

Masbate commodity

Masbate is the ideal production area for rimas ice cream because Masbate also has carabao’s milk and cheese (both ice cream ingredients).    

It’s also ideally the market because it is the area in the Bicol Region that has a hotter climate, so the clamor for cold products. Masbate has its own regional carabao breeding center meant to support carabao dairy production. 

With the breadfruit food production plan, government aims to reduce poverty in the Bicol region. After all, Region 5 has been identified by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute as No. 1 in malnutrition, particularly Masbate, Sorsogon, Camarines Norte and Sur.

The BIARC-BAR project also involves biodiversity study of rimas in Albay, Sorsogon,  Camarines provinces, and Catanduanes and will conserve the region’s breadfruit germplasm.  

Marcelino said BIARC is pushing for ‘Commodity by Station.’ Under this, Masbate will likely promote rimas ice cream as its top product.   

“Without a focus on a commodity, the products are not attracting attention,” she said.  

The roadmap

The grand breadfruit roadmap also involves postharvest technologies for packaging, handling, drying, transport, and processing of breadfruit.  

In charge are the Bureau of Plant Industry, state universities and colleges (SUC), and Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization. The post harvest project also involves study on the extension of shelf life for the fruit.    

Implementing agencies for the roadmap are regional integrated agriculture research centers or RIARC of Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, MIMAROPA, Bicol, western, central, and eastern Visayas, Southern Mindanao, and Caraga, as well as the University of the Philippines-Los Baños, Marinduque State University, and University of Southern Mindanao.

Breadfruit defined

Breadfruit, scientifically known as Artocarpus altilis, is called such as it smells like fresh baked bread when baked or roasted. Artos is a Greek word for bread, and karpos means fruit. Altilis means fat.  

It is native to New Guinea. Yet breadfruit’s usefulness in the Pacific has been traced for more than 3,000 years as an important staple and part of traditional agroforestry systems, according to the NTBG.   

From New Guinea, breadfruit later spread to Oceania, Melanesia (South Pacific which are north, northeast of Australia including Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Fiji), Micronesia (islands of Caroline, Gilbert, Marshall, Wake, Mariana, and Nauru), and Polynesia (East Pacific including Hawaii, Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga, Rotuma).     

Breadfruits are among the world’s highest-yielding plants at 150 to 200 or more fruits per season. Planting requires low labor. It grows well in hilly areas. 

Difference from camansi

Breadnut (camansi), while being deemed as the seeded form of breadfruit, is really a different species from rimas, according to the NTBG. 

Breadnut, Artocarpus camansi, is an ancestor of breadfruit. Breadfruit developed distinctly from it for thousands of years. 

Breadfruit uses

The NTBG reported that breadfruit is also used as construction material, medicine, glue, insect repellent, and animal feed. Its tree bears fruit at three to five years and stays productive for many decades.   

“The ‘tree of bread’ has the potential to play a significant role in alleviating hunger in the tropics,” said NTBG.

Its wood can be used for house construction as it resists termite.  It has fiber that can be used for clothing. The latex of breadfruit is also best used for boat caulking (joints sealing).    

With its milky flesh, it can also be used as emollient or moisturizer, according to Stuartxchange.

Environmental protection

The government can take advantage of breadfruit plantation to protect watersheds and forests.  

“Cultivating breadfruit trees protects watersheds; replacing slash-and-burn agriculture and field cropping with a permanent tree cover.”

Breadfruit recipes

Breadfruit is cooked in many ways in different countries. 

It is used as curry mixed with coconut milk and spices in Sri Lanka; fried as a delicacy in Karnataka; and eaten as a rice substitute where it is either boiled or grilled or eaten as a dessert when boiled in coconut milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon in Seychelles.

In Puerto Rico, it is eaten boiled with salted codfish, mashed with seasoned meat, fried, and eaten as a dessert called flan de pana or breadfruit custard.   

Breadfruit’s seeds are pureed into baby food in Ghana.