KOZHIKODE: “I am a hardcore fan of jackfruit since my childhood. But now, only we two elders are at home and no one is available to pluck the fruit. The fruit has ripened and the sweet fragrance is all around. One we relished the other day as the gusty wind brought it down,” says Alice K of Koodaranji grama panchayat. She and her husband cannot relish the ripened jackfruit on their property as the tree is huge and there are no climbers to pluck them.
The plight of Alice is shared by many jackfruit lovers in the district and in some areas, the sweet fruit falls and lies idle on the ground as no one is interested. According to the Vegetable and Fruit Promotion Council of Kerala (VFPCK), a very little quantity-- 500 kg of jackfruit and 1000 kg of tender jackfruit--had only arrived in the markets in the district this year due to the big hurdle of safely plucking the fruit. “Tall jackfruit trees are a major problem. Our attempts to market the product had met with little success. We had tried to bring in tender jackfruit into market but could get only 25-30 kg. Another issue is the very short life period of ripened jackfruit. It will remain on the tree only for a maximum of 48 hours,” says VFPCK Kozhikode district manager Rani George.
In Kozhikode, Thiruvambady and Koodaranji areas have an abundance of jackfruit but there are no big private or public initiatives out to tap the potential. “The hard labour associated with pruning of jackfruit is another impediment. Though there are a number of value-added products that can be produced from jackfruit, no consistent efforts have been taken in Kozhikode unlike the southern and central parts of the state,” she said.
Kozhikode principal agricultural officer Sasi P also agrees that northern Kerala is far behind in tapping the potential of the fruit compared to the other parts of the state. In the state, Idukki and Wayanad have vast tracts of jackfruit cultivation. In central Kerala, private agencies hire manual labourers from Tamil Nadu to pluck jackfruit from trees and collect it on vehicles to produce a large variety of value-added products from pickle to jackfruit powder on a commercial basis.