On 13 June this Year, a day-long jackfruit Festival was held in the Sita Mata temple environs of Pipri Village Panchayat in Udaynagar tehsil (sub-district). Most of the participants were members of the local Self-Help Groups and the Hissedari Sabha¹.

The women of Chikalwas village, which comes under the Palasi Panchayat of Khargone district, had long been demanding that the Panchayat give them daily wage work. Most people here are either marginalised farmers or landless farm labourers, and both depend on daily wage labour for their very survival. The women had appealed several times to the Sarpanch (village head) and the Rojgar Sahayak,[1] , reminding them of how, because they could obtain only seasonal work, they were forced to migrate in search of work to Khandwa or Indore, or even further to towns in the neighbouring stateof Gujarat. The Panchayat must give them work in lean periods. Each time, however, they gota standard reply: the Panchayat could do nothing, as it was not receiving any work commissions from higher officials.

This festival was coordinated by Babita kushwah, Hansraj Rathod, and Hariom Barwal, Udaynagar team members who have been underlining the importance of a healthy diet for fighting malnutrition. The Programme team encourages the villagers to eat seasonal local produce for better nutrition. And since jackfruit grows abundantly in the region, the team has been working to make its use more widespread.

Around 20 Years ago, SPS helped to distribute a variety of fruit-bearing plants, including jackfruit, in some of the villages of Bagli subdistrict situated in the Narmada Valley below the Malwa plateau. Those jackfruit trees are now fully mature, and the fruit grows here in large quantities. Farmers bring jackfruit to sell in the local bazaars and mandi (main market). However, its consumption used to be limited to the unripe fruit, because most local were unfamiliar with the practice of eating it ripe, as a fruit rather then vegetable, and had little notion that even its seeds were highly nutritious. In fact, jackfruit used to be simply discarded on ripening.

During the event, SPS´s Agriculture Team shared experiences and useful tips on jackfruit cultivation. Vivek Kumar explained how to prepare the matka, earthen pot, for pot irrigation. Cost outlay and profit figures for jackfruit cultivation were discussed. Mahendra Bhawar, Senior Mitaan² from SPS Agriculture, recounted how he, too, had planted jackfruit trees when the plants were being distributed 20 years earlier. Today, his family has 15 trees which give an annual crop of 12 quintals. He spoke about how to care for the trees, and the importance of knowing how much water they required.

Pinky Brahma Choudhury who heads SPS Community Media is from Assam, Sini Jolly who heads the Accounts Dept. hails from Kerala, and Vivek Kumar comes from Bihar (these are states in which jackfruit is a staple part of people’s diet). All three SPS office-bearers extolled the beneficial qualities of jackfruit, while sharing a variety of jackfruit-based recipes. They also demonstrated the correct procedure for cutting open a ripe jackfruit. First, they rubbed oil (soya or mustard or any edible oil may be used) on their hands to prevent the fruit’s gummy sap from sticking to the skin. The blade of the knife was also oiled. Then the jackfruit was split into half from one end, and the peel and seeds removed. They spoke of how the raw jackfruit can also be pickled and the seeds, too, may be dried and eaten as a vegetable, used in kheer (a milk dessert), or roasted like peanuts for a perennial snack. People also learned that the waste parts of the fruit make excellent animal fodder, being high on nutrition and eaten with enjoyment by cattle and goats. Those assembled there were then served jackfruit chips, seed preparations, and ripe jackfruit.

After trying these delicacies, everyone said-oh, we´ve never eaten ripe jackfruit before, it´s tasty and rather like mango- this is the first time we´ re hearing and seeing what a number of ways there are to enjoy jackfruit - we´ve used only the unripe jackfruit for cooking as a vegetable, but now we also know the many benefits of consuming the ripe fruit, Sini added that the powdered seeds also thought to have medicinal uses, such as boosting immunity.

The Udaynagar Pragati Samiti members all contributed to Marking the jackfruit Festival a success. The Festival is in its second year-last year the Udaynagar team had held a similar event in Devanalia village.

Writer: Varsha Ransore 

Source: Hansraj Rathod

Photography: Abhishek Chouhan

Translation (Hindi to English): Smriti Nevatia

Guidance: Pinky Brahma Choudhary