Dr Laura Roberts-Nkrumah, Senior Lecturer in Crop Science at the University of the West Indies (UWI), believes breadfruit has great potential as a powerhouse for sustainable local agriculture—a potential we’ve yet to realise. Today we conclude our report on an interview with her about breadfruit.
Although many of us like eating breadfruit, there’s a reason it’s never been grown on a large commercial scale in T&T. And this has a lot to do with our own historical lack of basic information on the plant, its many varieties, and which varieties might be better for which purposes—even though breadfruit has been growing here since the late 18th century.
Dr Laura Roberts-Nkrumah, Senior Lecturer in Crop Science at UWI, recalled that even up to the 1990s, there was almost no research being done on breadfruit, whether here in T&T or worldwide: “No one was doing the kind of research that would have been put into sugar or banana or corn, for instance,” she remembered. That dearth of information was a barrier to economic investment in breadfruit as a commercial crop, she said.
Due partly to the research efforts at UWI, though, that situation is changing; much of Dr Roberts-Nkrumah’s own research has been on expanding the available germplasm and evaluating different varieties of breadfruit here in T&T.
Breadfruit—high yields
Roberts-Nkrumah was attracted to breadfruit for two reasons: its high yields (one tree can yield from 30 to 200 fruits per season), and the permanence of the trees, which last a long time. “There are breadfruit trees in our landscape that have been there for generations,” she commented.
She said there were two main barriers to commercial breadfruit agriculture here. The first is our limited stock of germplasm: “The genetic variability is very limited, because breadfruit is an introduced crop to the Caribbean—there was just so much that Captain Bligh could have brought. And he collected from a very small area.”
She said we have only two main varieties here: the White and the Yellow. Both bear seasonally. While seasonality is not necessarily a big issue—we can eat other starchy foods like bananas, sweet potatoes, or cassava instead—we can still explore whether there are other breadfruit varieties that can bear at other times of the year, she said.
The second—and bigger—problem to commercial breadfruit production is harvesting, said Roberts-Nkrumah.
Breadfruit, after all, comes from a tall tree: “This huge yield you get from a breadfruit tree is because you are dealing with a very large plant. How will you check to see the fruit's level of maturity? How will you get the fruit down from trees 50 to 60 feet tall? Also, remember it is a fruit—when it ripens, it falls, and can get damaged or squashed. So while height might be great for productivity (per unit area of ground, using vertical space), it has challenges for harvesting and marketability of the fruit.”
Roberts-Nkrumah saw there was a genetic aspect to both these problems, therefore she decided to pursue expansion of the breadfruit germplasm.
Current UWI research
Ongoing UWI research in the Faculty of Food and Agriculture, said Roberts-Nkrumah, includes evaluating different breadfruit varieties. The faculty does breadfruit field research at the University Field Station in Valsayn, and some research is also done at the PCS Nitrogen Model Farm in Couva. These organisations also collaborate annually on training sessions for farmers.
The research is examining the different breadfruit varieties for their types of growth and development (including height); their yields; their seasonality; their disease resistance (in both the tree and the fruit); and propagation methods by improving traditional methods and using new approaches, including tissue culture and grafting.
Most breadfruit we get in the Caribbean are the large, seedless types—White and Yellow varieties—and therefore have more pulp for human consumption, said Roberts-Nkrumah. But there are many seeded types, and many other varieties, elsewhere. In Hawaii at the Breadfruit Institute, for instance, there are some 120 varieties of breadfruit.
Roberts-Nkrumah noted most breadfruit in Trinidad grows along the east coast and in the valleys, because of the higher moisture there. And she said that if farmers were thinking of investing in breadfruit as a crop, they first need to do their research and have a plan, as breadfruit is a long-term crop. They must carefully consider their markets, among other important factors, before deciding on a variety. She said basic questions would be: Why do you want to grow breadfruit? What will be its end use? And what kind of consumers will you sell it to?
So far, some advances in UWI breadfruit research at the St Augustine Campus include: a wider stock of germplasm characterising cultivars; more information on breadfruit's nutritional composition; consumer preferences; information of properties of breadfruit flour and related products; and post-harvest management, processing, and design of processing equipment. At the Mona campus research has been done on medicinal properties.
New breadfruit community online
Earlier this year, UWI's Faculty of Food and Agriculture hosted a successful five-day International Breadfruit Conference (July 5-8) at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Port-of-Spain, which attracted presenters from the Pacific, Asia, Africa, the US and the Caribbean. It was the first conference on breadfruit ever held in T&T, and generously supported by PCS Nitrogen Trinidad Limited, the major sponsor.
Dr Roberts-Nkrumah said the impact of the conference has been very good. As a result of networking and knowledge exchanged there, institutional use of breadfruit may increase. Also, emerging from the conference, there will be more research done to put breadfruit into consumer hands, and there have been increased requests for help from farmers. Also, there's a healthy interest in harnessing breadfruit into community tourism along the East coast—and an increasing recognition of breadfruit's potential in community development.
Triggered by interest at the conference, there will also soon be a new breadfruit website; there is already a new Facebook page called the International Breadfruit Network, to exchange ideas and information across geographical borders on anything breadfruit-related.
"I feel it's the food of the future," said Olelo pa'a Faith Ogawa, a Hawaii-born private chef, to writer Julia Sile for a 2011 Wall Street Journal article on breadfruit: "If I were to speak to the breadfruit spirit, it would tell me: 'Grow me! Eat me!' It can feed villages!"
BOX:
MORE INFO:
The International Breadfruit Network: https://www.facebook.com/breadfruitnetwork
UWI Department of Food Production: http://sta.uwi.edu/ffa/foodprod/ Tel: 662-2002, ext 83989; email: food.production@sta.uwi.edu; address: First Floor, Sir Frank Stockdale Building, Department of Food Production, Faculty of Food and Agriculture, UWI, St Augustine
The Breadfruit Institute: http://ntbg.org/breadfruit/ Address: The Breadfruit Institute, National Tropical Botanical Garden, 3530 Papalina Road, Kalaheo, Kauai, Hawaii USA 96741 Tel: (808) 332-7324 Email: breadfruitinstitute@ntbg.org
SIDEBAR
Breadfruit & Dal Curry
Serves 5-6
You need:
1 small size breadfruit (about 300gm)
100 gm toor dal (split pigeon peas)
1 level tsp tamarind paste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 large onions sliced fine
Oil or ghee for frying
For the masala:
6 long dry red chillies
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp chana dal (split chickpeas)
Pinch of hing (asafoetida) (optional)
1 cup grated coconut (or half a coconut grated)
For the seasoning/tempering:
1/2 tsp mustard
1 sprig curry leaves (kadipatta)
1 tbsp oil or ghee
Method:
1. Wash & cut the breadfruit into half (vertically) and remove the skin gently. Cut into quarters, remove the pith and cut into small chunks.
2. Wash the split peas and pressure cook with sufficient water and a little salt. Set aside.
3. In a heavy bottomed pan, heat some oil or ghee and roast the ingredients mentioned in 'For the masala'. Grind to a fine paste using a little water.
4. In another pan, add the tamarind water, breadfruit chunks, turmeric powder, sliced onions, salt to taste and some water & cook it on slow fire till the breadfruit is tender (but not mushy). Add to this the ground masala and the precooked toor dal (split pigeon peas) and the dal water, if required to achieve a gravy consistency. Check salt and bring the curry to a boil.
5. Season the curry with the seasoning for which you need to heat some oil in a pan and toss in the mustard—when they splutter, add the curry leaves and add this mixture to the curry.
6. Serve hot with rice.
(Recipe courtesy www.ruchikrandhap.com)