National Jackfruit Fest

National Jackfruit Fest
Kanakakunnu Palace, Thiruvanathapuram
4th to 6th June 2011
Jackfruit – key for Regional Food Security
First National Jack Fest of India

The National Jackfruit Festival with the theme ‘Jackfruit, the key for Regional food security’ is the first such venture inIndia, the country of origin of this wonderful fruit tree. The festival proposes to bring together all who have direct or indirect stake in the promotion and propagation of jackfruits as a nutritious food. The fest would be designed in such a way that all interested come together and hopefully form a strong network. This collective will continue to take up the cause of jack fruit promotion and preservation.
The festival will include National workshop, National skill training on value added Jack Fruit products, cooking competition, exhibition, poster exhibition, study, documentation and publication, quiz competition, show casing jack fruit products, Network formation and planting jack fruit seedlings, publication of souvenir and presented papers, collecting local names of jackfruits, documentation of micro level value addition initiatives, marketing mechanisms, traditional recipes etc,

Proposed Programs
1. National level work shop on “Jack fruit- for local food security” (Three days x 200 persons), 4 – 6 June 2011
2. National Skill Training for trainers on Value added products from Jack fruits( 3-5 days x 100 persons), 4 – 6 / 4-8 June 2011
3. Cooking competition of Jack Fruit products, 5 / 6 June 2011
4. Show casing of value added products from Jack Fruits (Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka,Goa, Maharahtra…Vietnam,Srilanka,Malaysia andThailand) (3 days), 4-6 June 2011
5. Live demo and sale of jack fruit products (3 days), 4 – 6 June 2011
6. Exhibition of various types of Jack Fruits (3 days), 4 – 6 June 2011
7. Poster exhibition of nutrition and health value of jack fruits (3 days) 4 – 6 June 2011
8. Study, Documentation & Publication of IEC materials
9. Quiz competition on Jack Fruits, 5th June 2011
10. Plantationon Various Varieties of Jack Fruit Plants in the office premises and public places in the Thiruvananthapuram city, 5th June 2011
11. Formation of Network, 6th June 2011
12. Social audit & Evaluation, September/October 2011
You are most welcome to participate in this program and your suggestions are most welcome. Kindly let us know the specific areas in which you could make contributions.
We also request you to pass the information to your friends who may be interested to participate in this initiative under intimation to us.

L.Pankajakshan
General Convenor
0471-2269780, 6452511 (M) 9287548234
jackfruitfestkerala@gmail.com

Eat Jackfruit, Waste Nil

Preparatory Meeting for

‘National Jack Fest 2011’

Jackfruit, the biggest organic fruit is one among our highly neglected food resource. It is paradoxical that we are wasting 60 to 70 per cent of total production.

Jackfruit and its value added products have good demand in India. Unfortunately, till now proper supply chains have not been created.

We are lagging far behind in value addition and proper utilization of jackfruit. Yet, there are hand counts of success stories here and there. No effort has been done to document this.

Despite losing lot of good genetic types, we haven’t put efforts to identify and propagate twice bearing, all season, early bearing and heavily bearing types.

Countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines have succeeded in developing best practices of jackfruit farming as well as value addition.

Of late, farming communities have started to have a second look at Jackfruit. In the last two years, 25 Jack Festivals were held in Kerala and Karnataka.

A wave of new interest is spreading. Identification of good local variety jack trees and propagation has started in some areas.

In this backdrop, it is proposed to conduct a 3-day ‘National Jack Fruit festival’ at Thiruvananthapuram tentatively from May 27^th to 29th 2011. Aim is to provide a national platform for jack-activists of the country.

One day would be devoted for a National Seminar to discuss possibilities, constraints and further roadmap towards promoting the Jackfruit products and to minimize the unfortunate wastage.

The seminar would also hold a window for the achievements in the field of jackfruit in countries like Srilanka, Vietnam, Malaysia etc. Exhibition of value added products, training in VA will be there on the other two days.

In this regard, a preparatory meeting would be conducted on Tuesday, the 26th April 2011 at 2.00 pm at the board room of KERAFED Head Office, Vellayambalam, Opp. Jawahar Balabhavan, Thiruvananthapuram. Dr.K.Pratapan, Mission Director, State Horticulture Mission will chair the meeting.

All the Jackfruit lovers are cordially invited for this meeting.

Santhigram, the organizing voluntary organisation seeks co-operation of all like minded groups, institutions and individuals.

For details:

L Pankajakshan

Director, Santhigram,

Chappath, Kazhuvur.P.O

Pulluvila-695 526

Thiruvananthapuram,

Kerala, India

0471-2269780, 6452511 ; 9287548234

santhigramkerala@gmail.com, pankajsanthigram@gmail.com

www.santhigram.org, http://santhigram.wordpress.com

Jackfruit Sambar for Mass feast

In Kanakapura taluk adjoining Bangalore, Jackfruit sambar is traditional combination for ‘Ragi Mudde’ (ragi ball that is staple food some of the state’s districts) for the wedding feasts. At one time when marriages were conducted at home by erecting pandals, this was a popular preparation during Jackfruit season.

For the marriage feast, jackfruits are gifted by near and dear ones. Neighbors and relatives take part in the preparation – starting from ‘minimal processing’ to cooking. Mature unripe jackfruits are used for the preparation. Oil is smeared to hands before cutting the jackfruits. This is to escape the nuisance of the sticky latex.

First step is deskinning the jackfruits to get rid off its thorny outer layer. A wooden stump is pierced to the top of the fruit to hold it firmly. Sickle is used to fast-chop off thorny layer.

Inserting wooden stump for holding jackfruit firmly

Once the outer green layer is fully removed, the fruits are kept for a few hours for the latex to ooze out. Later, with the same weapon, sickle, the fruit is chopped into small pieces. The whole jackfruit including the outer skin, flakes and seeds are cut and cooked as it is

Relatives and neighbours join hands in 'minimal processing

Finely chopping the deskinned fruits

The feast conducted on the next day of Shivarathri fasting also invariably had this in the menu. This was another way of cost reduction because most of the inputs were sourced locally without paying in cash.

Now weddings at home by erecting pandals are almost a matter of history. So also, ‘raagi mudde halasu saaru’ combination is slowly fading out.

Text and pix: Ganapathy Bhat Harohally ganapathibhat_hrl@rediffmail.com