DA project raises jackfruit yield in Leyte by 82 percent

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

With P1.28 million budget, 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 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 the rural town.  That exceeded original project target of 30 percent increase.

“Jackfruit 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 includes 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 plant nursery enabled availability seedlings.  The Plant Now Pay Later program likewise helped expand plantation area.

Jackfruit, “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.

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

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. /JOB (FREEMAN)