LRD Focus June 2007

Breadfruit: A crop of global significance

 

Breadfruit is well known in the Pacific as a source of food security, and more recently as an export commodity in countries such as Fiji and Samoa. The First International Breadfruit Symposium on Research and Development, which took place in Nadi (16-19 April), revealed that the importance of breadfruit has spread far beyond the borders of the Pacific. Participants came from far and wide, with representation from the African continent, The Seychelles, the Caribbean region, Sri Lanka and of course the Pacific.

As with many of the staple crops of the Pacific there is a tendency to assume that little research has been carried out and as such, knowledge and information is sparse. Again the Symposium revealed otherwise with its coverage of a wide range of topics, from themes such as “Breadfruit in Society” to “Product Development and Marketing”. The presentations and discussions showed that a significant amount of work has been conducted on breadfruit and that there is a lot of information to be shared and documented.

The Symposium consisted of 1.5 days of plenary where papers were presented by the majority of the participants. The plenary session was followed by Working Groups sessions and a focus session on the Global Crop Diversity Trust, from which, a number of recommendations were made.

The major recommendation from the Symposium was an acknowledgement of the significant work carried out by Dr Ragone and the National Tropical Botanic Garden (NTBG) in Hawaii in collecting and conserving breadfruit over the last 20 plus years. The Symposium participants acknowledged that this work contributes globally to breadfruit research and development and that as such, the security of the collection at NTBG (over 200 accessions) should be ensured “in perpetuity”, and therefore recommended that the collection – which is in effect a global base collection, should be part of the multilateral system (MLS) of the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) as set out in Article 15.

A number of other key recommendations were made and some of these are very much in line with the work carried out not only by LRD, but also with the recommendations from the 2006 HOAFS meeting. For example, a significant number of papers were devoted to the nutritional benefits of breadfruit, and emphasized the need to promote these benefits as part of an overall awareness campaign. This is in keeping with the 2006 HOAFs recommendation for LRD to pursue activities that will promote biodiversity, health and nutrition. The Symposium agreed that the nutritional benefits of breadfruit should be promoted with analysis needed on more varieties (both ripe and mature fruit). One of the papers presented at the Symposium highlighted the favorable omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid content of breadfruit – seen today as essential for good health and longevity.

Breadfruit was acknowledged for the role it can play in food security, and to strengthen this role, especially with a view to managing climate change, the Symposium called for more evaluation of varieties to identify those with traits such as drought and salinity tolerance. It was also proposed that “a processed product” such as nambo, a form of dried breadfruit, specific to Temotu Province in the Solomon Islands, could have significant potential for disaster relief - once dried, nambo can keep for up to two years before losing its quality. Again these recommendations are in line with the 2006 HOAFS recommendation for LRD to address more urgently the issue of climate change and food security.

The question of how to improve commercial production generated a number of recommendations which revolved around knowledge and information, for example, that there is information available and accessible so that production practices specific to an area and also for specific products can be used. The importance of using different varieties of breadfruit to increase production and year round availability was also stressed.

Product development was the focus of much discussion and the recommendations highlighted the need to develop a variety of convenient products with extended shelf life to replace imported less healthy staple foods and snack foods, and which should target all age groups. Generating interest in a traditional staple, such as breadfruit from the youth in all the regions represented at the Symposium was seen as a significant challenge, and the participants strived to think of some innovative solutions to the problem, such as acquiring the services of a “celebrity” to promote breadfruit. In the Pacific, a well-known rugby player could be the answer.

Marketing a traditional staple is also a challenge, especially when it has basic food security status, such as breadfruit. Again the call was to be innovative and to take advantage of the trends in marketing, by emphasizing health, culture, green environment and fair trade. In line with this thinking, the question was raised as to why in developing products there has been a tendency to focus on modern methodology, and so one recommendation was to give consideration to traditional methodology, such as fermentation rather than concentrating all efforts on modern methodology.

The global importance of breadfruit for food and nutritional security, and also its relatively recent role as an export commodity raises the issue of diversity – significant diversity and to some extent, crop improvement is required to meet the different needs of backyard and commercial production, and with diversity comes the need for conservation systems and germplasm exchange mechanisms. The presentation on the Global Crop Diversity Trust initiated discussions on, and led to a proposed global strategy for conservation and utilization of breadfruit. This strategy had several key components, such as sustainable support for the global base collection at NTBG; establishment of the utility core (20 selected accessions for all-year-round fruiting) in tissue culture and its transfer to, and evaluation in all regions; identification of a genetic core after conducting diversity studies and development of a minimum set of descriptors, possibly photographs, to include leaf, fruit at maturity, colour, etc. To take this global strategy the necessary project proposals have to be developed and funding sourced – this is now in progress.  

The Symposium highlighted just how important and popular breadfruit is throughout the world (it is grown in over 80 countries), and although a lot of information was shared, it was also very clear that research and development was vital for breadfruit to achieve its commercial potential and to ensure it maintains its food security status.  With the enthusiasm generated from the Symposium breadfruit R&D should have a higher profile in both national and regional programmes, in all of the countries represented at the Symposium.

In summary, perhaps the best understanding of the significance of breadfruit to food security and sustainable livelihoods was made by Sir Joseph Banks in 1796 when he said “If a man plant 10 (breadfruit) trees in his life, he would completely fulfill his duty to his own as well as future generations…”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more information contact Dr Mary Taylor. Photos courtesy of Jim Wiseman, Breadfruit Institute.