“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.”