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African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development
Rural Outreach Program
ISSN: 1684-5358 EISSN: 1684-5358
Vol. 19, No. 2, 2019, pp. 14289-14302
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Bioline Code: nd19029
Full paper language: English
Document type: Research Article
Document available free of charge
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African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development, Vol. 19, No. 2, 2019, pp. 14289-14302
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PRODUCTION AND UTILIZATION OF JACKFRUIT ( Artocarpus Heterophyllus ) IN UGANDA
Balamaze, J; Muyonga, JH & Byaruhanga, YB
Abstract
Jackfruit originated from East Asia, known to be the largest tree born fruit weighs up to
30kg and yields 50-80 tons per hectare annually. The fruit has large potential in Uganda
and has been used in value added products on a small and rudimentary scale. This work
assessed the production and utilization patterns of jackfruit with a view of determining
its capacity to sustain industrial scale processing. A cross-sectional survey was
conducted in jackfruit producing regions from April to June 2016. The study variables
were household farm size, number of jackfruit trees, types, utilization methods and
constraints associated with jackfruit production. A purposive sampling design was
used to select districts, sub-counties, parishes and villages to participate in the survey.
A total of 400 household heads from the study area were interviewed using a semi
structured questionnaire. Responses and observations were recorded; secondary data
was also reviewed for information on the total number of households in a district. The
results showed that 32% of the respondents worked on 1-2 acres of farmland on which
they have at least 2-7 jackfruit trees. About 57% of jackfruit trees were planted while
the remaining 43% were inherited. The study area was estimated to have about 1.7
million fruiting jackfruit trees with the number of fruits per tree varying between 20-120 fruits and weighing11 kg, on average. Jackfruit harvest season in Uganda has two
peaks in March to April and November to December, with the latter season yielding
more fruit. Jackfruit is categorized into white, orange and yellow types based on the
pulp color, hard or soft according to pulp texture. About 78% of households produced
jack fruit mainly for home consumption, 16% of the households sold the fruit, and 6%
fed it to animals while 1% of the household processed them into dried chips or jackfruit
wine. The estimated jackfruit production per district in the study area was 0.3 million
metric tons/annum. Although the study area has a potential of producing jackfruit for
industrial processing, there is need to grow more jackfruit in an organized manner to
meet the increasing and competing demands for both home consumption and industrial
processing.
Keywords
Jackfruit Artocarpus heterophyllus; production; categorization; utilization; household; consumption; flakes
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