Australia backs research on jackfruit productivity

MANILA, Philippines – Jackfruit, locally known as langka, has the potential to provide income to small farmers.

However, lack of hygiene in nurseries, presence of pests and diseases, and lack of knowledge in integrated crop management, value-adding, and processing are hindering 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 and consolidator in Inopacan, Leyte.

To address these challenges, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development embarked on a project aimed at boosting the production, resilience and profitability of jackfruit.

The project aims to develop systems for maintaining nursery hygiene, produce disease-free planting materials, improve management technologies to extend jackfruit fruiting season and make available improved stock-scion combinations that are Phytophthora resistant.

It also recommends the use of potassium phosphonate to manage diseases.

Aside from benefiting smallholders in the Philippines, the project also seeks 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 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 project, Technology Transfer and Commercialization of Jackfruit Products through TechnoMart.

Prolonging the shelf-life of the vacuum-fried jackfruit is also part of the 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.