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BACKGROUND: In 2018, in the southern state of Kerala, jackfruit was designated the State Fruit. In the same year, the north-eastern state of Meghalaya initiated a Jackfruit Mission. Yet, apart from these two states and a handful of initiatives in others, much of the jackfruit available in other Indian states was underutilized.

EVOLUTION: The pioneers of Jackfruit India felt that the available information was not serving its farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs to adopt the best practices in jackfruit processing. One among them, Achyut Das, decided to create a pan-India, multidisciplinary WhatsApp group called ‘Jackfruit Forever’ in February 2021 to bring together various stakeholders – from the public and private sectors, the NGO world and the communities all of them serve – to one platform. The response was overwhelming.