KOCHI: In the Kerala budget for 2025-26 presented by Finance Minister K N Balagopal, it was stated that the government would launch initiatives to include the nutritious jackfruit powder in Central nutrition programmes such as Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0. However, the very idea which had been mooted in a report submitted by the National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM) to the Women and Child Development Department, Kerala, four years ago remains in cold storage.
Speaking to TNIE Dr Komal Chauhan of NIFTEM said, “The report was submitted in 2021 after the department approached the institute to conduct a study on preparing value-added products that can be used to supplement the nutritional needs of children and lactating women.”
According to her, replacing soya bean with jackfruit flour would work towards taking away the beany taste of the Nutrimix. “This would also take care of the waste problem created by the discarding of jackfruit seeds,” she said.
According to her, the ready availability of the raw material will help reduce the cost of production of Nutrimix since the Anganwadis don’t get very large sums as grants.
“There is a fund constraint and that can be solved by using locally sourced produce to make the Nutrimix. Another plus of using jackfruit and its seeds in the supplement powder is the generation of entrepreneurship opportunities for the womenfolk. They can do the initial processing before turning the raw materials over to big processing units to make the powder,” Dr Komal said.
NIFTEM had been approached to research the possibilities of making various value-added products using jackfruit seed flour.
As per statistics, Kerala, which had declared the fruit as its state fruit, has an area of 97,536 hectares under cultivation with an annual production of 348 million fruits and productivity of 3,568 fruits per hectare. “But a major portion of the fruits is going to waste. As per national statistics, Kerala produces around 3 million tonnes of fruits. Out of this 3 million, 1.43 million tonnes is jackfruit,” James Joseph, CEO of Jackfruit365, said.
“This is happening at a time when the use of jackfruit powder has been recognised to have a therapeutic potential to improve glycemic control in Type2 Diabetes Mellitus,” said James.
According to him, at a time when the National Budget also mentioned using jackfruit powder in the Saksham and Poshan 2.0 programmes, nothing proactive has been going on in Kerala.
“Kerala needs to make the most of the opportunity that will bring in the much-needed revenue to the state and also the farmers by supplying the jackfruit powder to other states to meet their needs under the Saksham and Poshan 2.0 schemes,” he said.
Former finance minister Thomas Isaac launched a jackfruit campaign and allocated `5 crore in the 2018 budget for jackfruit development. This time around the state budget has allocated `1.67 crore to Indian Institute of Diabetes in Thiruvananthapuram for research into the use of jackfruit in partial substitution of diet with unripe jackfruit-based recipe on Glycaemic Parameters.
When Kudumbashree was asked whether there is any directive regarding the inclusion of jackfruit powder in Nutrimix for Anganwadis, an official said that no such directive has been issued by the Women and Child Development Department yet.
Major portion of ‘state fruit’ goes to waste
As per statistics, Kerala, which had declared the fruit as its state fruit, has an area of 97,536 hectares under cultivation
Has annual production of 348 million fruits and productivity of 3,568 fruits per hectare
Despite this, a major portion of the fruits is going to waste
As per national statistics, Kerala produces around 3 million tonnes of fruits. Out of this, 1.43 million tonnes is jackfruit, says James Joseph, CEO of Jackfruit365