BHUBANESWAR: With jackfruit playing a vital role in ensuring nutritional security, the State government has asked the Directorate of Horticulture to promote its cultivation by providing necessary support like quality planting material, post-harvest processing, value addition and marketing.
Presiding over a high level meeting on production of nutritious fruits held virtually here recently, Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra directed the department to explore all possibilities for promoting jackfruit cultivation in areas where people have traditional skills for the purpose.
The Chief Secretary advised the department to spread extensive awareness on the nutritional composition of jackfruit along the lines of millet mission activities so that its commercial production is taken up by farmers. He also suggested to promote local entrepreneurship for setting up post-harvest processing and value addition enterprises on different varieties of jackfruit. Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Sanjeev Chopra said jackfruit has high nutritional value and the agro-climatic condition of Odisha is suitable for its production. As per local climatic condition, around 50 blocks in the State were found suitable for jackfruit production on commercial scale.
Chopra said Odisha is the second largest producer of jackfruit after Tripura. Jackfruit trees have been distributed in almost all districts of the State. However, around 15 districts contributed a major portion of jackfruit production. He said jackfruit production of the State is around 3.15 million tonne per annum. Out of the total produce, around 55 per cent was consumed raw as a vegetable and around 35 per as a ripe fruit mostly during festivals.