Could Breadfruit Help Trinidad and Tobago Brace for Climate Change?
The scorching November sun has thinned the crowd at Trinidad’s Chaguanas farmers market. Here, local farmer Wayne Ramrattam sells his produce. But it’s the breadfruit that Trinbagonians really can’t get enough of. This soccer ball-sized fruit has a bumpy green exterior and a potato-like interior that makes it incredibly versatile.
April 1, 2023 | Source: Yes! Magazine | by Jade Prevost-Manuel
It’s early on a Saturday morning, but already, the scorching November sun—a rarity following five months of unusually torrential rains—has thinned the crowd at Trinidad’s Chaguanas farmers market. Here, local farmer Wayne Ramrattam sells his produce. Customers reach for the coconuts, dasheen, plums, and mangoes in his stall. But it’s the breadfruit, the farmer says, that Trinbagonians really can’t get enough of. This soccer ball-sized fruit has a bumpy green exterior and a potato-like interior that makes it incredibly versatile.
“It’s a fruit that people love,” he says, and the single breadfruit left at his table is a testament to its popularity. “Anything you does make with it, it taste good. If I bring 200 breadfruit here, it sell out and people still coming for it.”
Lucky for Ramrattam, his farm has had no shortage of the fruit this year. The 20-or-so trees on his property can produce as many as 4,000 breadfruits in a single year.