AFRICA ( commonwealth Union ) _ The Creative Seychelles Agency (CSA) organized the first Breadfruit Day on Saturday with the goal of encouraging people in Seychelles to have a breadfruit tree in their backyard to help ensure food stability in the nation. The major island of Mahe’s eastern Au Cap neighbourhood is home to Domaine Val de Pres, where the event took place.
CSA executive director Emmanuel D’Offay stated that a number of organizations have been working together to promote this event, which in the future we want to be a Breadfruit Festival. When it comes to the breadfruit, we Seychellois have a great story to sell to our visitors that is when one eats breadfruit in Seychelles, it means you are sure to come back.
Several high-ranking officials, including Keven Nancy, principal secretary for agriculture, David Andre, secretary general for the Institute of Culture, Heritage, and the Arts, and Benjamin Rose, executive director of the National Heritage Resource Council, planted breadfruit trees to commemorate the event. Kelly Saminadin, the district’s chosen National Assembly representative, also planted a tree. Participants in the gathering also had the chance to try various breadfruit preparations.
On Mahe, Praslin, and La Digue, there are reportedly 4,424 breadfruit trees, according to a 2021 agriculture department survey. The department will resume its inventory this year and has calculated that there are over 9,000 breadfruit trees in the area. The breadfruit, which used to be a staple food in Seychelles and is now a small nation that is highly dependent on imports, may gain popularity once more. Before the regular importation of other staples like rice, potatoes, and bread flour, breadfruit was a common food in Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean.
The fruit can be boiled, grilled, fried, steamed, roasted, or, more commonly, consumed cooked in coconut milk in a dish called “la daube” as a dessert. The fruit has a tough green exterior shell and a white or yellow potato-like interior texture. The breadfruit has a high nutritional value and lowers the risk of inflammation in the body, so the nutrition department is urging locals to consume more of it.
