Full Breadfruit/Ukwa farming tutorial
Are you a farmer who is looking for a kind of agricultural crops or trees that is passive and produces well priced products? well you have found one! it is called breadfruit.
Breadfruit is a long tree in the family of Moraceae, this tree can grow up to 90 feet in height and have thick and large stem and produces round and oval shaped fruits which sometimes weight about 50kg each of the fruits have more than 200 edible seeds.
This tree is one of the gold mines many farmers are missing, thus it is very sad that a very precious and economic tree like breadfruit is being neglected, that is why the seeds are scarce.
The seeds of breadfruit is often called balanced diet by some people, well this is due to the fact that it is very nutritious.
There are many types of breadfruit, but in Africa, the Africana type is the most popular and is planted by few people, although not as serious as it should be.
We are going to focus more on the African type of breadfruIt.
In Nigeria and other west African countries, this tree has many names such as In Igbo, it is called Ukwa,.
Although It takes time to grow, which is one of the reasons why farmers don’t cultivate it, but it has so many benefits when it matures and start having fruits, it’s fruit is round and oval shaped, up to 12 inch in height, weight up to 50kg each and it is green in colour and turns yellow and brown when ripe/decay.
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It is used for many things, ranging from food, medicine and industrial usage.
I hope I have given you an insight on what breadfruit is, now let’s dive into the farming process of this tree, it’s different types, storage and it’s uses or importance.
Types of Breadfruit
There are 3 different types of breadfruit and each of them differ in their own way, they are:
Artocarpus Altilis: The Artocarpus altilis type of breadfruit is a conversant with the people of Central America, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Ocean, South Asia, the Caribbeans, and Africa.
When this type of Breadfruit tree matures, it’s height is up to 85 feet,and this type of Breadfruit are monoecious, this means, they possess male and female flowers on the same tree, and they possess large and thickset leaves among the types of breadfruit types.
It’s fruits are weighty 4 to 6 kg and lemon-green when ripe.
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this type is an ultra-tropical plant, the ecological conditions for it’s exceptional good growth are 16 to 38 degree F, and the annual rainfall of it should be 78.7 or 98.4 inches.
Normally, this type does well in soils that are fertile and properly drained, but many of it’s subspecies adapt to shallow, sandy or saline soils.
This type is a good source of food, wood and animal feeds. Cooked breadfruit seeds tastes like a cooked potato and looks like bread.
This particular breadfruit tree has a strong stem which is a good raw material for making planks, for roofs and woods for fire and building.
Jackfruit – Artocarpus heterophyllus: Jackfruit is a part of breadfruit family and produces the largest fruits among all types of breadfruit.
This is a tropical fruit which is very popular in south India and many Asian countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh etc.
The fruits from this type of breadfruIt weight about 30 to 50kg, it is 50 cm across and 35 inches long.
A single jackfruit tree could produce up to 150 to 200 fruits per year and grows up to 80 feet in height.
It is monecious in nature, just like Artocarpus altilis this means that the flowers of both genders sprout from the same tree. The large flowers of jackfruit trees are edible.
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Areas plagued with high winds or above 4,000 feet (sea level) are unhealthy for jackfruit trees and result in either death of trees or low yields.
Seeds are the best propagating option for jackfruit. Trees planted by seeds will mature quicker than other propagative option.
Treculia Africana: This is known as African breadfruit and is a type/specie of the breadfruit family (Moraceae) and is similar to the actual breadfruit plant.
This type of breadfruIt is popular in Africa Madagascar. Treculia Africana is mainly farmed for it’s edible and large number of seeds.
Each of the fruits of this type of breadfruIt has a weight of up to 20 to 50kg and contains over 200 seeds each fruit.
The ripe fruit of African breadfruIt have green-yellow skin and a very tough texture but the colour turns brown when it is over riped and about to decay. The fruits pulp of this genus is not a food source but can be used as herbal medicine and manure or snail food.
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This particular type of breadfruIt is what the Igbo people (biafrans) use to prepare many delicious delicacies and they call it ‘ukwa’.
African breadfruit has many preparation methods which includes, it be roasted or fried as is done in other parts of the world and it is very costly and delicious. The 200 + of seeds per fruit is a very large amount of yield considering how sought after it is.
The Treculia Africana is planted in forest and rainy areas. It does very well in Eastern Nigeria and in other African countries like Uganda, Zambia, and Madagascar. It grows about 1,494m above sea level.
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It’s Maturity lend this tree a height of 98 feet. The Creamy latex that pours out of the bark of this type of matured breadfruIt tree when wounded or cut on the stem is used as a glue for caulking or for herbal medicine for mending broken bones.
Male and female flowers sprout from trees but do so separately making them dioecious in nature. A single tree of African breadfruit bears flowers of only one gender.
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Some of the subspecies of this type of breadfruit tree includes Treculia Africana var. mollis, Treculia Africana var. illicipolia, Treculia Africana sub Africana, and Treculia Africana var, inversa.
How to grow/farm Breadfruit
As I have explained the different types of breadfruit/Ukwa, let’s dive into how to cultivate them, mainly on a large quantity for passive income business.
knowing that breadfruIt is one of the trees that can last for a very long time, probably 30 years and above, this is very huge and passive, but how do we start or go about with breadfruit farming? here are the steps:
Land: We all know that the first step in every agricultural business is land, but, in the case of breadfruIt farming, especially in commercial quantity, large amount of land is needed!.
Breadfruit is a very big and large tree, so this makes it to occupy larger amount of land. For instance a plot of land could only occupy not up to 10 trees, so prepare larger amount of land if you are planning to start commercial production of breadfruIt.
The land should not be located on a waterlogged land nor a place where wind do disturb or where there is lesser sunshine nor a land that has low soil fertility, loamy soil of about 60 to 70 ph is best for this type of plant.
When the land has been located, do some little work on it by clearing the bush and digging holes where they are to be planted.
The holes should depend on the height of the young breadfruit trees you will plant.
After digging, pour in fertilizer or organic manure into the holes before planting them.
Planting: When the land has been gotten, the next step is to plant the trees, but before that, the trees should be present, and there are two types of breadfruIt trees to plant, one is planting the root shoots and the other is planting the seeds.
Planting the root shoot is the simplest and the best as it is the method used by many people to plant this tree.
There are many advantages of this method and some of them are, this method is faster to grow and mature than with the seed method and also this method does not require too much work, taking care of like the seed method.
Planting with the seed method is also a nice method, but it requires a lot of work, for instance, germinating the seeds.
To germinate the seeds, fill in a good farming soil with enough soil nutrients into a pot or any container, go and get breadfruIt seeds from decayed breadfruit fruit, put them into the pot and cover slightly with soil and leave them where sun will reach them and also water, they will sprout in weeks or sometimes a month.
When they sprout, leave them there to grow strong and big for transplant, then transplant them to their permanent place.
Seeds can be planted directly in the farm and leave to germinate there or germinated seeds could be gotten from few decayed breadfruit fruits and also planted and they will still do just fine with proper care.
When they have been planted/sowed, cover the holes with sand and water them. immediately and place manures round each of them.
The best season or months to do this kind of farming is around the rainy season, because the rain will help you in terms of watering.
After sowing or planting them, there is no other hard work again to do other than to weed, apply manure if necessary and water them during the dry season. This is the reason some people will say, “‘Growing Breadfruit tree is easy”.
Watering: like I said before, water is one of the works you need to be doing after planting this plants because they are heavy drinker, and that is what they use to grow.
Breadfruit tree is recommended to be planted during the rainy season so that before the rain could stop or before the season runs out, the rain must have stiffen the roots of the plants into the soil, especially transplanted trees, this will help the farmer alot by saving him or her the task of watering them always during this early period of the plants that they require much water.
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To help retain the water in the soil, mulching is necessary.
Weeding: Weeding is very necessary for this plants in their early stage. Although weeds don’t affect them too much, but they need to be removed for the sake of soil nutrients which must be preserved for the long run of the plants, So once in a while, try to remove the weeds more especially the ones closer to the plants.
Fertilization: From time to time, fertilizer or manures should be applied to them, especially animal dungs, this will help them with nutrients which will be sustaining them on the long run.
Some types of breadfruIt like the Africana takes a very long time like 7 to 10 years before it could get to the maturity stage and start yielding fruits. So they need to have proper soil nutrients and good manure on the long run for quick growth and good yields.
Pest and disease control: Unlike other agricultural plants this particular plant is exceptional when it comes to pests and diseases.
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There is no known pest or disease that affect this plant that’s why it is great to cultivate this plant. The only known pest that disturb it is rat, they do eat their seed if not kept properly.
At about 10 years or a little while below, they will mature and start growing fruits, first they will start by bearing flowers which will develop into fruits, and it takes few months for the fruits to start maturing one after the other or sometimes they will mature at the same time.
Harvest/Processing of breadfruIt fruits
When they mature, the fruits will start turning from Green to yellow and they will start falling down one after the other. Although you can pluck them up there, but it is very unwise because, you can’t be so sure they are totally matured, unless they fall by themselves and a fruit of about 50kg falling down with full force could be fatal if it hit you or any living thing near, so they are best allowed to fall by themselves, also it is very fatal to even go near a breadfruIt tree that has matured fruits as accident might happen.
When they fall, leave them there so that more could fall and by that time, they might have started decaying, this is when you will take them and process.
When they decay, they will be dark brown and the once hard shell of theirs will be totally soft, this is when the seeds will be removed.
To process them, take them to a stream or large body of flowing water or with fast rushing water from a host, take the seeds out and put them in a basket. The breadfruIt fruit is full of gummy starch, and they should be removed! put some sharp sand into the basket and start rubbing them together with the sand and be watering it.
Continue doing this till the seeds are normal and the starchy substances are totally out! When you are through with that, spread the processed seeds on a tray and place them under the sun to dry the water on them and after they are fully dried, it’s either you sell them, eat them or store them.
Breadfruit Storage
When the seeds are fully processed and dried under the sun, then it is time to store them.
To store the seeds put them into a dry container or bag with lots of opening where air will penetrate from and put them in a well ventilated room where rats won’t tamper with them.
They could be stored for months without spoiling and also they shouldn’t be kept far too long or they may spoil.
Uses/Importance
This is one of the most valued trees in the world because of it’s numerous values, from food to Medicine to industrial values, some of the values it has are:
It is used to prepare many kinds of delicious foods and it is a good fit for other foods like rice, beans, yam, potatoes etc.
The preparation methods are frying, roasting, boiling.
One thing about this food is it is so heavy that only one cooking spoonful of porridge breadfruit will satisfy you. and it is so delicious.
The leaves and stem of this tree is used to prepare all kinds of natural cure in many nationalities.
The tree is used for making planks when cutted down which is used for roofing, making boats, etc and it produces fire wood.
The stem of the tree produced gum when wounded which is used for producing gum and the tree is used for making papers by industries.
Farming this tree in large number has the potential to be a source of passive income for the planter as there is no. work needed to doe once they grow, only to watch them yield fruits and make money from them.
The market is very strong and the seller has the power to inflence the market price of his or her goods.
Conclusion
I strongly encourage the large Cultivation of this plant as they are fast becoming scarce, you could make alot of money from it.Please share this post on social networks if you like it and subscribe to my newsletter so that you get updated on new and helpful contents.
