How this agricultural engineer in Ratnagiri is turning heads through jackfruit business

Besides, Desai’s company even exports jackfruit leaves to Germany where it finds use in cancer research.

“Jackfruit, widely regarded as vegan meat, is high in nutritional value. Seeds of this fruit can equal almonds in terms of nutrition. In Konkan, it was the humble jackfruit which saved lives during the drought of 1972,” said Desai, explaining jackfruit’s potential in the global hunger problem.

After his degree in agricultural engineering from the Mahatma Phule Agriculture University, Desai decided to do a scientific analysis on the nutritional secrets, value addition and cultivation of the fruit. For this, Desai set up a laboratory near his orchard sometime after 2014, when he took up cultivation seriously.

Desai did experiments to study the BRICs value (to determine its sweetness) and other parameters to understand the varieties that are best suited for each geographical region. The best way to consume the fruit is in its raw form, ripened or otherwise, said Desai, adding that the bark of the tree is used in animal feed as well as fertilisers.

In his childhood, Desai was introduced to jackfruits by his father, a farmer who sold ripe jackfruits on roadsides at almost throwaway prices. “Unlike other farmers my father realised the potential of the fruit and in the year 2000 he travelled to Kerala, a major jackfruit growing state, to buy 36 varieties of the fruit and plant them in our farm in the Lanja taluka. Back then it was almost unheard of,” he said.

Like most farmers in the Konkan region of Maharashtra, mango and cashew were the main cash crops of the Desais.

“Climate change has played its part in increasing the cost of production of mangoes and return from the fruit was uncertain. Also cheap imports of cashew has resulted in cashew losing its sheen. It was then we decided to develop jackfruit and help it gain its rightful place,” he said.

Desai said the fruit is consumed as a vegetable in the Vidarbha region and North India, while the ripened fruit is favoured in western Maharashtra. “We should know which variety to market where,” he said.

Desai started a jackfruit nursery in 2018 and developed a variety named after his father Harishchandra.

“Annual sales have zoomed from 1,000 saplings to over 25,000. More and more farmers are taking to this fruit as a serious crop,” he said. Subsequently, Desai formed a Farmers Producer Company (FPC) with over 900 members.

The nursery and the FPC are part of Desai’s plan to help farmers tap in the ever- growing jackfruit market. “Be it in the vegan industry or chips, jackfruit has a largely untapped market,” he said.

The nursery would help Desai and the FPC to identify farmers who can supply the fruit in bulk. “Through FPC, we will buy the fruit as the raw material for the upcoming processing centre which would be set up in over 11,000 sqft in our area,” he mentioned.