DA project raises jackfruit yield

MANILA, Philippines - A P1.28 million  Department of Agriculture (DA) project has successfully raised jackfruit (langka) yield in a Leyte town by 82 percent to 15.39 metric tons (MT) per hectare, enhancing profitability for a fruit that has abundant value-adding prospects when processed.

The DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research’s (BAR) project in Mahaplag, Leyte has tapped a superior variety called “EVIARC Sweet, the sweetest known jackfruit variety that also has good crispiness.”  

It was developed by the Eastern Visayas Integrated Agricultural Research Center or EVIARC and is now registered with the National Seed Industry Council.

Using EVIARC Sweet, an additional 11.97 hectares of jackfruit land have been put up in Mahaplag, a fifth class municipality in Leyte.

This is an 80 percent increase in area in this rural town, exceeding the  original project target of  just a 30 percent increase.

 â€œJackfruit is a flagship project in Leyte.  We want to help the province focus on crops that can make a dent in the lives of farmers and farming entrepreneurs in poor communities,” said BAR director Nicomedes P. Eleazar.

 Additional income of farmers from the project, arising mainly from yield increase, was from P77,000.00 to P307,800 per hectare over the September 2010 to June 2013 period.  Yield in 2010 was only 8.45 MT per hectare. 

Training of farmers on improved cultural practices enabled increase in yield. This included pruning, correct timing of fruit bagging, and use of a biological agent, Metarhizium anisopliae, as organic pesticide to control fruit fly and fruit borer. 

The BAR project also enabled yield increase through integrated nutrient management or INM.

The establishment of  a plant nursery enabled availability  of seedlings.  The Plant Now Pay Later program likewise helped expand plantation area.

Processing

Jackfruit,  or  “langka” in Filipino, has significant market potential for processing similar to the country’s national fruit mango.  

It is processed into dried jackfruit, jackfruit pastillas, tart, and jelly.

As other Asian countries are seizing market opportunities, the Philippines should do the same.

“Exotic fruits are in demand during Christmas which is a bright prospect for our fruits.  In markets abroad, most of the tropical fruits sold are from Thailand and Vietnam.  These command a high price,” according to Elvira C. Torres, Regional Integrated Agricultural Research Council (RIARC) manager and  research chief.

With a production increase, EVIARC looks forward to the establishment of a good manufacturing practice-compliant processing center.

“In terms of processing, the volume of fresh fruits that can be absorbed will be increased.  When a shared processing facility is established, it can already absorb the expected oversupply of fresh fruits foreseen by 2015,” said Torres.

Baybay Delights

Leyte’s jackfruit products have  already joined some global trade fairs.  Among these is the Asian Seed Congress in Thailand where the country’s jackfruit products have been found to be  tasty by visitors.

The “Baybay Delights” was also recently exhibited at the Agrilink in Manila. 

“Based on our observation, the potential to market EVIARC Sweet, compared to those from Thailand or Vietnam, is good particularly for the vacuum dried jackfruit.  Its golden yellow color of the pulp is very natural.  Its sweetness is already acceptable, and there’s no need to use sweetener,” said Torres. 

EVIARC Sweet has  a sweetness of 25.6 degree brix, higher than some varieties’ 19 or 18.

The processed form will give entrepreneurs a good profit as Baybay Sweet vacuum dried is sold at P65 per 100 grams in the market.

CPAR

The Mahaplag Jackfruit Growers Association (MJGA) has 22 jackfruit farmer-members. 

Through the Community Participatory Action Research (CPAR), MJGA was able to raise membership to 52 that also included processors and farmers.

BAR’s CPAR system is a process where communities are surveyed on what they think they need to help improve their agriculture-based livelihood. It is employed to ensure that projects will work because there is empowerment and participation of the community.

Housewives in Mahaplag were trained to process jackfruit as a livelihood project.

Poverty

Mahaplag is an economically poor municipality with 87 percent of the households in the CPAR location, Brgy. Malinao, considered to be poor. Poverty rate in the other CPAR location, Brgy. San Isidro is 56 percent.

Annual household income in Brgy. Malinao is P46,000 and in Brgy. San Isidro, P32,000. 

Expansion area for jackfruit is still available in Mahaplag.  It has 4,643 hectares for agricultural production.

It is trying to raise income from agricultural production as its net return from the farm sector is lower than that of the national average.

Pastillas, etc

The BAR-CPAR project, in any future expansion, will further  focus on the processing of three products that have given the highest profitability potential of 122.18 percent.  These are jackfruit pastillas, jackfruit rags (in between the flesh) jelly, and tart.

 EVIARC has partnered with the Visayas State University which now has expertise on jackfruit food processing technologies. 

Other collaborators of the project are the provincial local government unit of Leyte, Japan International Cooperation Agency,  and the Visayas Consortium for Agriculture, Fishery and Natural Resources Program (ViCARP).

So far a machine dehydrator has been turned over to the association of Baybay jackfruit producers. The Department of Science and Technology has also given a drying machine to the VSU for processing use.

Backyard

Jackfruit trees in Eastern Visayas (Samar-Leyte) mostly involved mere backyard farming. 

But the propagation of more scions, a young plant twig particularly used for grafting, should enable birth of more plantation-type farms.

“Establishment of plant nurseries will expand areas into plantations. With 1,000 grafted jackfruit seedlings per year, additional increase of 6.4 hectares of jackfruit plantations would be expected per year,” said the EVIARC group that also includes Alicia D. Bulawan, Glicerio N. Perlito, Mario Socrates P. Tisado, Brenda B. Almeroda, Anecita S. Mionda,Diosdada C. Tanola, and Dr. Carlos S. De La Cruz.

Uses

Jackfruit is a versatile fruit that has numerous commercial and non-commercial uses. 

Its wood is also used for furniture and clothing.  It is a cure for some illness. 

The ripe fruit is used as dessert in the form of syruped delicacy.  Its rags, the portion in between the edible flesh in ripe form, is rich in pectin and may also be eaten when turned into jelly. 

The BAR project aims to prepare jackfruit producers to become processors.  The bureau also  hopes to teach growers to become entrepreneurs capable of coming up with high quality products exportable to the European Union and the United Arab Emirates. 

Another income opportunity for jackfruit is the sale of grafted planting materials.

For selling the fruit, it has been an experience at EVIARC that there will be no significant income on the first two years of fruiting but income on the third and fourth year is already attractive at a net income of P140,000.