Beyond the Bounty: Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) for food security and novel foods in the 21st Century

Authors

  • Andrew Maxwell Phineas Jones University of British Columbia
  • Diane Ragone National Tropical Botanical Garden
  • Namulau’ulu Gaugau Tavana
  • David W Bernotas University of California San Diego
  • Susan J Murch University of British Columbia

Keywords:

Ulu, undernourishment, underutilized crop, Food security

Abstract

The Food and Agriculture Organization recently reported the number undernourished people has reached a record high of 1.02 billion, most prevalent in the tropics. Breadfruit, Artocarpus altilis (Parkinson) Fosberg, is an underutilized Oceanic staple crop long recognized for its potential to alleviate hunger in tropical climates. Breadfruit can be grown sustainably with minimal agricultural inputs and can be multicropped with high value cash crops such as coffee, pepper, or vanilla. A great diversity of cultivars with varying nutritional and agronomic characteristics exists, yet few cultivars are widely cultivated. Recent developments in micropropagation have made possible large scale propagation and dissemination but to fully utilize this resource.  However, a deeper understanding of the nutritional characteristics and the development of new products and markets are needed. This review will highlight and describe the state of our current knowledge and the potential for breadfruit as a sustainable crop to provide new foods for Western markets and food security for the growing global population.

 

Author Biographies

Andrew Maxwell Phineas Jones, University of British Columbia

Department of Biology

Diane Ragone, National Tropical Botanical Garden

Breadfruit Institute, Director

David W Bernotas, University of California San Diego

Department of Economics, Lecturer

Susan J Murch, University of British Columbia

Department of Chemistry, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, Associate Professor

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Published

2011-04-21

How to Cite

Jones, A. M. P., Ragone, D., Tavana, N. G., Bernotas, D. W., & Murch, S. J. (2011). Beyond the Bounty: Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) for food security and novel foods in the 21st Century. Ethnobotany Research and Applications, 9, 129–149. Retrieved from https://ethnobotanyjournal.org/index.php/era/article/view/478

Issue

Vol. 9 (2011)

Section

Research

License

All articles are copyrighted by the first author and are published online by license from the first author. Articles are intended for free public distribution and discussion without charge. Accuracy of the content is the responsibility of the authors.