Report by Badal Tah, Rayagada : Rayagada is one of the prime producers of the Jackfruit in Odisha. It is naturally found in the forests and backyards of tribals. The jackfruit is still an underdog in Rayagada scenario. The fruit is perishable and cannot be stored for long time because of its inherent compositional and textural characteristics. Though there is a huge production of jackfruits in tribal districts like Rayagada, they are sold at distress price to profiteering traders. Every year, a considerable amount of jackfruit, specially obtained in the glut season (June-July) goes waste due to lack of proper postharvest knowledge during harvesting, transporting and storing both in quality and quantity. Value addition is still a new concept and the market penetration of value added products is not much due to lack of awareness and handling difficulties. The potential for value added products provides an extremely viable opportunity for sustainable promotion of tribal livelihoods. Processing of jackfruits into various value added products at small scale/ village level and selling to the markets directly/ tying up with big aggregators will help both the farmers and the consumers. Alternate ways of using jackfruits in on-season plays significant roles in reducing postharvest losses. Among them, processing is important one. It adds diversified and attractive food items in dietary menu as well as contributes to generation of income and employment.
In the context of this, a 5 days training programme on Jackfruit Processing was organised by Agragamee at Mallijharan of Kashipur block of Rayagada dist. Thirty women, mostly tribal, from Koraput, Kandhamal, Nabarangpur and Rayagada districts participated. They were trained in fourteen types of food items. Processing of jackfruit was supposed for creating supplementary income for tribal stakeholders & for skill augmentation. This capacity building of tribal women was meant for creating alternate livelihood source for and to abate the wastage of jackfruits. The importance of post-harvest processing of fruits is meant for realising higher returns from interventions like grading, artificial ripening, proper packaging, etc. During the practical sessions spread over the five days of training programme, tribal women trainees were provided with hands on training on the minimal processing and preparation of value added products of the jackfruit on commercial scale in the tribal region.
A separate session on hands-on training on preparation of pickle, badi and other items from raw jackfruit was taken up, where the trainers from Social Development Foundation, Talcher. took extensive sessions on process of preparation of raw jackfruit based dosa, raw jack powder, jack in brine, pakoda, vada, jack fries, badi, pickles, jack biryani, etc. Theoretical and practical orientation were provided to prepare Squash, Syrup, Jam, Jelly, Halwa, Tone, Pickle, Pappadam, Murukku, Honey Jackfruit, Jackfruit Preserve, Burffy, Cake, Cutlet, Bhaji, Laddu, Chips, etc. The participants were curious about the novel opportunities in processing of raw jackfruits and were visibly excited about the prospects of the undertaking the raw jackfruit processing in the current season. The tribal women farmers are expected to be motivated enough to undertake the minimal processing and storage of raw jackfruits during the current season.
This training will ultimately help in self sufficiency of tribal women. The inaugural ceremony was attended by Shri Bhuban Mohan Patnaik, GM(Retd.), NABARD, Shri Ekadasi Nandi, Retd. Senior officer of agriculture department, Shri Achyut Das, Director, Agragamee. The trainees were encouraged by Smt. Vidya Das, Joint Director, Agragamee and Shri Mahendra Nath, Advisor, Agragameee. The training programme was managed by Sri Budhadev Das from Agragamee. Marketing agency such as Mamata Udyog was also present for entrepreneurship development.
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