Exhibition highlights benefits of jackfruit

Hyderabad: The multiple benefits of jackfruit was brought to light at the first ever Jackfruit Food Festival being organised at Exhibition Grounds here on Sunday. The medicinal values and healthy food preparations with jackfruit created interest among the visitors to the exhibition.

The interest evinced by people was due to the fact that it was ignored despite having great medicinal values, said the organiser of the Jackfruit Festival of Thinle Foods head, A Srikanth Bhat. Also, the fruit could be cooked and used in various kinds of food items. In the food festival on Sunday, more than 100 varieties of jackfruit food preparations were served, he added.

Asha Sridhar, one of the invitees said, “There are many varieties of jackfruit food items here. The jackfruit Halwa is so delicious. ‘Pathrode’, a southern Karnataka dish prepared by the fruit is also good.” She said that jackfruit festivals of this kind should be encouraged in Telangana as such festivals happen regularly in cities like Bangalore.

Further, Shree Padre, Editor of ‘Adeke Patrike’ based at Kasaragod in Kerala, said that India has good man power and favourable conditions for jackfruit crop. But people were not encouraged enough to promote jackfruit and its products. "A household woman can make a turnover of Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 for a single jackfruit tree," he added.

He further said that he had been working for the past seven years in the jackfruit horticulture crop and also wrote a book called ‘Forgotten Kalpavriksha’. That book explains the importance of the jackfruit and the market it has would help the farmers falling into debt traps, he stated.