Rice is a staple food of Filipinos, but in rural and far-flung areas lacking this grain, people turn to alternatives such as sweet potato, ube, gabi and rimas, otherwise known as “kolo” or breadfruit.

Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary Conrado Estrella III featured his breadfruit propagation in a Facebook vlog on 31 March, showing rimas growing in his nursery and farm in Barangay Carmen, Rosales, Pangasinan.

“This is a big help because breadfruit is part of our staple food, but it has been forgotten,” Estrella claimed. “Now I am reviving it.”

The breadfruit has different varieties, including native species (Artocarpus altilis) in the Bicol region. Another is the Yellow-Heart variety that he imported from the National Breadfruit Institute in Hawaii, United States.

Estrella offered former Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol 10 seedlings of each of the varieties from Hawaii to be propagated in Mindanao.

Pinol posted a photo of the varieties in his Facebook page with the caption: “North and South farmers working together, hopefully Central Philippines, too, to undertake a very practical program to contribute to food security and to re-green our denuded mountains and uplands.”

According to Estrella, breadfruit can now be processed as a rice substitute using modern food processing technologies.

He added that breadfruit can also be fried or steamed.

In terms of propagating breadfruit, Estrella wanted a lot of seedlings since the plant has no seeds.

As of now, Estrella’s farm in Pangasinan has 850 breadfruit trees. He plans to increase the number to 1,000 trees.

Breadfruit cultivation and propagation is a game-changer in “nutrition, food, and environmental security,” he stressed.