New Jackfruit Variety, Food Products Developed
It was developed by the Eastern Visayas Integrated Agricultural Research Center (EVIARC) to boost the country’s jackfruit industry, and was already registered at the Bureau of Plant IndustryNational Seed Industry Council (BPINSIC).
The demand for the planting materials of this variety is increasing, and to cope with it, EVIARC has trained government agricultural technicians and private gardeners in jackfruit propagation, and has established scion groves in Provincial Technical Institutes of Agriculture (PTIA) Provincial Research and Extension Centers (PRECs) to produce more planting materials.
The grafted plantlets are being propagated in RIARC San Jorge, Samar, RIARC-Main in Bagong Silang, Babatngon, and RIARC Satellite Station in Balinsasayao, Abuyog, Leyte where the mother tree of EVIARC Sweet is planted.
Inspired by the market potential of EVIARC Sweet, the Visayas Consortium for Agriculture and Resources Program (VCARP) and the Regional Research and Development/Extension Network (RRDEN) developed the Eastern Visayas Jackfruit Industry Development Convergence Program.
Under this program, the member institutions of the VCARP and RRDEN consolidated efforts to facilitate the marketing and utilization of jackfruit. Thus, food technologists and engineers of the Department of Science and Technology-Region 8, DA-8, and VSU have developed technologies for the commercial processing of jackfruit food products.
Two of the newly developed jackfruit food products are the Vacuum-fried Jackfruit and the Dehydrated Jackfruit that were both developed by a team of VSU food technologists led by Dr. Lemmuel M. Diamante.
Vacuum-fried Jackfruit is produced from half-ripe to fully ripe jackfruit pulp. It is crispy and has no additives and preservatives. The Dehydrated Jackfruit, on the other hand, is produced from ripe pulp, similar to dried mangoes, and it contains no sodium metabisulfite, a commonly used preservative that is believed to cause health problem especially to asthmatics. The brand name of the products is “Baybay Delights.”
And to support the commercialization of the new products, the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) donated about a million pesos and almost half a million, respectively, to the VSU for the purchase of additional equipment and improvement of its pilot processing plant.
November 9th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
please include to publish the jackfruit production in Leyte