Ex-Dubai resident is reviving jackfruit, one sapling at a time, in south Indian state of Kerala

Bengaluru: In Kerala, jackfruit was once a staple food, cooked into mouth-watering curries and served for lunch. The tradition is slowly on the way out now.

In traditional rural families, there is still seasonal presence of chakka (jackfruit in Malayalam), in various forms and dishes.

Some varieties of the fruit are pickled for consumption especially in monsoon, when fish and vegetables are not readily available. Not just the fruit, even the seeds are relished, fried or roasted as a snack. But, these traditions are fast loosing flavour in the state.

However, one farmer from Kerala’s Thrissur district is on a mission to reverse the trend, bringing the bulky fruit back into reckoning.

Known popularly as Plavu (jackfruit tree in Malayalam) Jayan, Kaipulli Raman Jayan has been planting jackfruit trees for 15 years.

“Before the foreign remittences entered Kerala, people survived on Jackfruit at least for a couple of seasons every year. Things started changing during my childhood days. Jackfruit provided food security before and that era has gone. Now, my mission is to revive the old practice,” said Jayan, who has dedicated his life to the revival of Kerala’s natural heritage.

Jayan’s passion for the revival of these native south Indian trees began during his school days, when this humble fruit tree used to be a part of every backyard in the state.

Spark of youth

“This has been my passion since I was a young boy. I used to visit different villages to study and research about various varieties of jackfruit. I pursued this for some time and then like most Malayalis I also went to Dubai for work, where I worked for 11 years from 1995 to 2006. But, then I returned home as this seed of plantation began germinating in me once again,” said Jayan, hailing the late UAE President His Highness Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan’s plantation drive across the emirates as a great source of inspiration.

Jayan has praise the late UAE President’s efforts in his book ‘Plavu.’

He suggests that the weighty fruit could be easily grown in the UAE’s environment as it thrives in hot weather and requires watering only in the initial stage.

“When I was returning from an annual vacation during my Dubai days, I tried importing some saplings of jackfruit, but the airport authorities didn’t allow, so I had to leave the saplings be-hind. I believe, jackfruit trees are ideal for the UAE environment and should be tried,” he add-ed.

Legacy

Jackfruit was once so popular in Kerala that it was part of the state’s folklore.

However, as a growing population of Keralites moved overseas for work, bringing foreign money and influence, the state’s dependence on the fruit reduced, as purchasing power improved and food habits changed.

But, according to Jayan, jackfruit trees are not just about food, rather they are rooted to the economy and ecology of the state.

Thanks to Jayan’s relentless efforts in reversing the trend that had seen the jackfruit trees uprooted en masse, the gentle giants are slowly getting back into the collective consciousness of Kerala now.

“I am a hereditary farmer and I follow the legacy of our ancestors who practised the indigenous method of farming that evolved over centuries. They knew the local ecology like their own na-ture and they also knew how to maintain the balance between human needs and nature. Our ancestors meditated with nature, I also do that, especially before choosing the seedings and planting,” said the 55-year-old self-taught conservationist.

Author of five books, including ‘Plavu’ in four volumes and ‘Plavu and Me,’ Jayan’s aim is to plant the seeds of awareness about Jackfruit’s importance to Kerala’s fragile ecosystem.

Jayan sees jackfruit at the centre of Kerala’s food security even as he believes that the clumsy fruit will not only revive Kerala’s flagging rural economy but will also help rebuild a sustainable ecosystem.

“My agricultural ideology is rooted in seed-based farming. It takes five years for my process to bear fruit. This way the tree will live for 150 years, it won’t have a short lifespan. This is the orig-inal age-old practice of farming, this is the ancestral practice of all the people of this region and I am reviving it and this will help revive the rural economy of Kerala,” added Jayan, who dreams to see 100,000 fully grown fruit-bearing jackfruit trees across Kerala.

Varieties

Jackfruit comes in more than 200 varieties, with many of the indigenous variants now extinct. However, Jayan has so far managed to revive 18 lost varieties of this highly nutritious fruit.

His conservation efforts have won him more than 200 awards, including the prestigious National Plant Genome Saviour Award in 2019, India’s highest award in agriculture.

Astonishingly, all his plantation efforts have come without owning a single piece of farmland.

“I began planting saplings on the roadside and in the backyard of my home. As my work started bearing fruit, I was able to convince some of my friends to lend their lands to implement my pro-jects,” said Jayan, who also takes open-air classes for school and college students, teaching vari-ous farming methods and sharing environmental lessons.

So far, Jayan has planted around 20,000 saplings, including 2,500 in Shornur that have started bearing fruits, 500 saplings in a farm near his village of Velukara and recently he has adopted an-other farmland near Chalakudi where he has started the project with 150 saplings.

Apart from these, Jayan has also planted thousands of jackfruit trees on the roadside in Thrissur and the neighbouring districts that are already bearing fruits.

The father of two has also helped curate the campuses of several universities and ashrams includ-ing Mahatma Gandhi’s Sevagram Ashram in Wardha.

Food Cycle

“The return of jackfruit will re-establish the ancient food cycle not just for humans but also for wildlife like bats, squirrels and others. My dream is to make this land rich again with different varieties of jackfruit,” said the Jackfruit Man, who aims to grow jackfruit forests across the state.

His efforts are starting to bear fruits, as the government of Kerala has now declared jackfruit as the official fruit of the state. During the ceremony, Jayan was felicitated for his unwavering ef-forts.

The decision indicates a renewed interest in the fruit that also has many unexplored medicinal properties, while the robust timbre of the brooding tree is highly sought-after for building boats and houses.

“Jackfruit has a lot of medicinal and nutritional properties. Kerala has a huge number of patients with cancer and reproductive issues, some varieties of Jackfruit helps cure these issues. If we bring back jackfruit in our food cycle, our health quality will be like that of our ancestors,” concludes Jayan.

-- Shafaat Shahbandari is a Bangalore based independent journalist. He is the founder of Thousand Shades of India, an alternative media platform that celebrates the diversity of India.