Jackfruit, which farmers generally grow in the backyard, provides huge potential for smallholders as a source of additional income. However, lack of hygiene in nurseries, presence of pests and diseases, and lack of knowledge in integrated crop management, value-adding, and processing remain as challenges in the development of smallholder farmers.
“Low farm-gate price of jackfruit is a major concern in my farm. Selling price of jackfruit for the past three to four years was only P14 per kilogram, while price of fertilizers and labor continued to increase,” said Dominador Villasis, a jackfruit grower in Inopacan, Leyte.
These challenges are being addressed by the project, Tropical Tree Fruit Research and Development in the Philippines and Northern Australia to Increase Productivity, Resilience and Profitability, which is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD).
The project aims to develop systems for maintaining nursery hygiene; produce disease-free planting materials; promote the use of potassium phosphonate to manage diseases; improve management technologies to extend jackfruit fruiting season and processing options; and make available improved stock-scion combinations that are Phytophthora resistant.
Aside from benefiting smallholders in the Philippines, the project will also be able to enhance the industry development in tropical Australia.
As part of the project, an experiment is being conducted in the farm of Magsasaka Siyentista Job Abuyabor in Mahaplag, Leyte to determine the optimum fruit maturity appropriate for jackfruit processing. Abuyabor also has a processing plant in his farm, where he has successfully processed raw jackfruit pulps into dehydrated jackfruit products for the past two fruiting seasons. This product was developed through the DOST-PCAARRD and Visayas State University (VSU) project, Technology Transfer and Commercialization of Jackfruit Products through TechnoMart.
Prolonging the shelf-life of the vacuum-fried jackfruit is also part of the ACIAR-PCAARRD project. The use of nitrogen-flush packaging will be tested to maintain the crispiness of the jackfruit chips while prolonging the shelf-life of the product.
